RESEARCH ON THE TREATMENT OF SEXUALLY ABUSED-CHILDREN - A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Objective: To review findings and conclusions from 29 studies that eva luated with quantitative outcome measures the effectiveness of treatme nts for sexually abused children. Results: The studies overall documen t improvements in sexually abused children consistent with the belief that therapy facilitates recovery, but only five of them marshal evide nce that the recovery is not simply due to the passage of time or some factor outside therapy. There has yet to be a true large-scale, rando mized trial of treatment versus control. The studies suggest that cert ain problems, such as aggressiveness and sexualized behavior, are part icularly resistant to change and that some children do not improve. A number of considerations that merit special attention in future sexual abuse therapy outcome research are identified, including (1) the dive rsity of sexually abused children, (2) the problem of children with no symptoms, (3) the possible existence of serious ''sleeper'' effects, (4) the importance of family context on recovery, (5) the utility of a buse-focused therapy and targeted interventions, (6) the optimal lengt h of treatment, (7) the problem of treatment dropouts, and (8) the dev elopment and use of abuse-specific outcome measures. Conclusions: The need for more treatment outcome research is highlighted by the rising demand for accountability in the health care system that will increasi ngly require professionals in the field of sexual abuse treatment to j ustify their efforts and their methods.