An investigation of child sexual abuse in terms of content and effectiveness of 2 modalities of group therapy treatment.

Abstract

Within the field of child sexual abuse much of the research concerning initial effects has been obtained from clinical anecdotes and case material. Empirical validation is therefore needed to substantiate research in this area. In addition, research on the outcome and efficacy of different group treatment modalities is lacking. The aim of the study is twofold. The first aim is to investigate the verbalization of negative emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse in a structured and an unstructured treatment group. The second aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured group treatment programme (Sturkie, 1983) versus an unstructured group treatment programme for sexually abused children. The participants in the study were 􀁙 female child sexual abuse swvivors who ranged in age from 8 years 9 months to 12 years 6 months with a mean age of 10 years 6 months. The subjects were arbitrarily assigned to the structured and the unstructured group. All subjects were individually assessed pre- and post­intervention on the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (1984), the Rutter Teacher's Questionnaire (1967), the Human Figure Drawing Test (1968) and the Kinetic Family Drawing Test (1970). An analysis of the results reveal that the verbalization of negative emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse accounted for 17.27% of the total verbalizations in the structured group and 20. 72% of the total verbalizations for the unstructured group. The unstructured group allowed for greater verbalization of statements relating to anger and the feeling of being unclean, soiled or dirty. There was no significant difference in the verbalization of any of the other emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse. Results of the pre- and post-assessment appear to indicate an increase in self-esteem in relation to the children's attitudes concerning their physical characteristics. In addition, an improvement in attributes such as leadership and the ability to express ideas is indicated. The variable relating to a subject's anxiety, worry, nervousness, sadness, fear and a general feeling of being left out of things approached significance and indicated a trend to increased self-esteem. No significant differences were noted on any of the other variables measured in the pre- and post-test assessments. In conclusion, there is no evidence to suggest that a structured versus an unstructured group therapy programme appears to be a more effective method of treatment for child sexual abuse survivors, although certain issues pertaining to the different group modalities are discussed.