Relationships of Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse with School Achievement and Self-Concept

Abstract
Adolescent victims of child sexual abuse suffer through complex problems of vast proportions. Treatment of these victims is a challenging task facing mental health professionals. Few studies have assessed treatment success in child and adolescent sexual abuse cases. The present investigation used a pretest-posttest format with three measures from the Stanford Achievement Test and self-concept (Piers-Harris) scores to assess the effectiveness of 6 months of psychotherapy with sexually abused girls. Social workers led psychotherapeutic groups like those described by Blick and Porter. The groups offered the girls a supportive environment to gain insights into their difficulties. The study used a comparison group based on gender, age, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Results indicated that the early adolescent sexual abuse victims in treatment made significant gains on all measured areas whereas the comparison group's scores did not change significantly.

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