Treatment of traumagenic beliefs among sexually abused girls and their mothers : An evaluation study

• Published in: Journal of abnormal child psychology 1996-02, Vol.24 (1), p.1-17
• Main Authors: CELANO, M, HAZZARD, A, WEBB, C, MCCALL, C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; African American Children; African Americans - psychology; Attitude; Behavior Rating Scales; Beliefs; Biological and medical sciences; Caregiver Role; Check Lists; Child; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child Abuse, Sexual - psychology; Child Abuse, Sexual - therapy; Child Behavior; Control Groups; Depression (Psychology); Emotional Problems; Emotional Response; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Family Counseling; Family Therapy - methods; Female; Females; Followup Studies; Girls; Humans; Individual psychotherapy; Internal-External Control; Interpersonal Relationship; Low Income; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Modeling (Psychology); Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Outcomes; Outcomes of Treatment; Parent Counseling; Parents; Personality Assessment; Play Therapy; Post traumatic stress disorder; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Poverty - psychology; Psychological Patterns; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychosocial functioning; Psychotherapies. Psychological and clinical counseling; Psychotherapy; Psychotherapy, Brief - methods; Sex crimes; Sexually abused girls; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - therapy; Therapy; Treatment; Treatment Outcome; Treatments
• ISSN: 0091-0627; 2730-7166; 1573-2835; 2730-7174
• DOI: 10.1007/BF01448370

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of two short-term individual therapy interventions for sexually abused girls and their nonoffending female caretakers. Thirty-two girls, ages 8 to 13, and their caretakers from primarily low-income, African-American families were randomly assigned to a theoretically based, structured experimental treatment program or to a relatively unstructured comparison intervention. Measures of child outcome were completed before and after the treatment program by each parent and child, and by a clinician blind to treatment condition. Pre- and postmeasures of maternal outcome were completed by the caretaker and a clinician not involved in the treatment. Both treatment programs yielded decreases in children's posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and traumagenic beliefs reflecting self-blame and powerlessness, and increases in children's overall psychosocial functioning. The experimental intervention was more effective than the comparison program in increasing abuse-related caretaker support of the child and in decreasing caretaker self-blame and expectations of undue negative impact of the abuse on the child. Clinical implications of these findings include the development of interventions targeting sexually abused children's traumagenic beliefs and nonoffending parents' support of their victimized children.