NCJ Number
204331
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2001 Pages: 347-355
Date Published
March 2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the effectiveness of group work intervention on female survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Abstract
The goal of this study was to explore the effects of group work intervention on female survivors’ senses of guiltlessness, affiliation, and hopefulness. A quasi-experimental design was originally used to assess the effectiveness of generalist problem-solving group work with female survivors. Closed small process groups were co-facilitated by experienced female social workers between 1990 and 1994. The results show that group was found to be beneficial on adult female survivors’ appropriate sense of guiltlessness for their childhood sexual abuse, as well as on their sense of affiliation and hopefulness. The results were consistent across the three outcome measures of guilt/guiltlessness, isolation/affiliation, and hopelessness/hopefulness. Sixteen to 18 of every 20 women that participated in group work did better than the average woman in the waiting-list comparison group. These apparent clinical benefits were maintained for 6 months. The group experience seemed to be most helpful to those women that had demonstrated the least hope for their own futures (had attempted suicide). Shared experiences around a common problem seemed to enable most participants to successfully reframe their childhood experiences of abuse in a more valid way. After the group experience they were likely to have let go of the regret they may have previously experienced for their perception of having done something wrong, and to correctly attribute such responsibility to people and circumstances over which they had no control. Because this clinical sample of survivors was nearly entirely White, there is a need for future research to examine the effectiveness of group work with more diverse groups of survivors. 1 table, 35 references