Therapist Responses to Recovered and Never-forgotten Memories of Child Sex Abuse: A National Survey of Licensed Psychologists

In a national survey of 300 female and 300 male licensed psychologists, participants were presented with vignettes in which a 14-year-old girl told a therapist that her father had sexually abused her for a year at a specific age (either 2 or 8), that she either had or had not forgotten the abuse fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Violence against women 1997-08, Vol.3 (4), p.348-360
Main Authors: TABACHNICK, BARBARA G., POPE, KENNETH S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent girls
Allegations
Americas
Child Abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Childhood sexual abuse
Clinical psychologists
Credibility
Crime
Data Collection
Developed Countries
Incest
National surveys
North America
Patients
Perceptions
Population
Psychologists
Psychology
Sampling Studies
Sex Offenses
Social Problems
Social Sciences
United States
USA
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Summary:In a national survey of 300 female and 300 male licensed psychologists, participants were presented with vignettes in which a 14-year-old girl told a therapist that her father had sexually abused her for a year at a specific age (either 2 or 8), that she either had or had not forgotten the abuse from the time of its occurrence until the current year, and that the therapist is the first one that she had told about the abuse. Participants provided information about the degree to which they found the allegations credible and the steps that they found important in responding to the allegations. The age at which the alleged abuse occurred and the therapist's age produced significant effects on evaluations of credibility, as did an interaction of therapist's sex and theoretical orientation. There was no difference in evaluations of credibility between male and female psychoanalytically oriented therapists; among nonpsychoanalytically oriented therapists, female respondents were more likely than male respondents to find the claim credible.
ISSN:1077-8012
1552-8448
DOI:10.1177/1077801297003004002