Therapist responses to childhood sexual abuse disclosures
Date
2012
Authors
Karwan, Arvind K., author
Chavez, Ernest, advisor
Bloom, Larry, advisor
Swaim, Randall, committee member
Bishop, Pamela, committee member
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Abstract
The present study investigated possible differences in how male and female therapists respond to a disclosure of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) from a male or female client. A total of N = 249 practicing psychologists read a vignette describing a disclosure of CSA by a client. Participants were then asked to complete quantitative and qualitative measures on disclosure responses, attitudes toward survivors of CSA, and socially desirable response patterns. Multivariate analyses indicated that, after accounting for attitudes toward survivors of CSA, male and female therapists did not significantly differ on their responses to a CSA disclosure, and that male and female clients did not elicit significantly different responses. Data from the present study was compared with that of a previous study on college student responses to CSA disclosures. These post-hoc analyses revealed that college students were more likely than therapists to provide emotionally supportive, distracting, and egocentric responses to a CSA disclosure. Analyses also revealed that therapists endorsed significantly more negative attitudes toward survivors of CSA than college students. Implications for clinical practice and future directions for research are discussed.
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Subject
adult survivors
attitudes
child sexual abuse
disclosure responses
therapist responses
treatment