Questioning Children Who May Have Been Sexually Abused

Summary

This article derives from an Open Forum on Leading Questions sponsored by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. It represents the thoughts of participants in the Open Forum, and the article attempts to integrate analogue research that relates to questioning children about past events into questioning practice with children who may have been sexually abused. It proposes a continuum of questions that includes four categories: most preferred, preferred, less preferred, and least preferred.     

Abused Women in South Africa who Kill their Intimate Male Partners: A Psychological Exploration

The aim of this study was to explore psychological risk factors that may precipitate the murder of a partner by an abused woman. In this article, the authors use multiple case studies and interviews with three women incarcerated for the murder of their partners. Four themes relating to intimate partner violence emerged from the interviews: 1) post-traumatic stress disorder, 2) coercive control, 3) substance abuse and 4) interrelational conflict. The study indicates psychological factors that may precipitate the murder of an intimate partner that should be taken into account when counselling abused women.     

Women with Physical Disabilities Who Want to Leave Their Partners

Abstract

Four domains of barriers for women with physical disabilities who are considering leaving a partner are outlined. These obstacles include (a) physical needs; (b) financial needs; (c) custody concerns; and (d) relationship issues. Disability policies can have direct bearing on the lives of women with disabilities, and hence on their freedom to choose to remain with or to leave a partner.     

Equine Facilitated Therapy with Children and Adolescents Who Have Been Sexually Abused: A Program Evaluation Study

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a social problem that often inflicts long lasting psychological trauma and leads to psychopathology, behavioural problems and re-victimization. Treating young people who are presenting with the detrimental effects of CSA is often difficult because these effects off-set efforts at establishing a therapeutic bond. Animals have been found to facilitate the development of the therapeutic alliance between client and practitioner and therapies utilizing horses have the added bonus of empowering clients. This study aimed to evaluate an Equine Facilitated Program (EFT) run by Phoenix House, a sexual assault referral centre in Queensland, Australia. Participants were six boys and nine girls (aged 8–11 years) and 15 adolescent girls (aged 12–17 years). All participants provided several measures of data designed to establish levels of psychological distress at three points in time. That is, Time 1—intake into the service; Time 2—following approximately 6 weeks of in-clinic counselling and pre-EFT; and Time 3 post-EFT (9–10 week duration). Significant improvements in functioning were found between Time 2 and Time 3 assessment across all psychometric measures and for both age groups. No, or non-significant, improvements were found between Time 1 and Time 2 assessments. Overall the results show that EFT proved an effective therapeutic approach for the children and adolescents referred to the service. Of particular note was the finding that efficacy was similar across gender, age and Indigenous/non-Indigenous status. Implications of this and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male Partners: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography describes 271 scholarly investigations (211 empirical studies and 60 reviews), which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 365,000.     

Boredom Proneness,Social Connectedness,and Sexual Addiction Among Men Who Have Sex With Male Internet Users

The authors collected surveys from 517 men who have sex with men (MSM) recruited from Internet chat rooms to examine the relationships among boredom, social connectedness, and sexual addiction. The results provide addictions professionals psychosocial factors to assess when working with sexually addicted MSM.     

The Relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and Suicidal Ideation among Young Chinese,Korean, and Vietnamese American Women

ABSTRACT

High depression and suicide rates are critical problems that have a significant impact on the lives of young Asian American women. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been identified as a predictor of suicidality in general female samples, but no research study has examined the relationship between IPV and suicidality in a sample of 1.5 and second-generation Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese American women. We used data collected from 173 women (aged 18-35 years) who were screened for eligibility to participate in the development and efficacy study of Asian American Women’s Action for Resilience and Empowerment (AWARE). We measured the prevalence of (a) IPV, (b) lifetime suicidal ideation/intent, and (c) childhood abuse and tested the association between IPV and lifetime suicidal ideation/intent among study participants who completed the clinical screening assessments. The results indicated that seven out of 10 women in our sample experienced lifetime suicidal ideation/intent, psychological aggression was the most commonly reported form of IPV during the last six months, followed by sexual coercion, and history of physical and/or sexual partner violence had the most robust association with lifetime suicidal ideation/intent after controlling for demographic factors and childhood abuse. Our study suggests that suicide prevention and intervention programs for young 1.5 and second-generation Asian American women should not only address experiences of childhood abuse, but also incorporate culturally adapted behavioral health approaches to identify and target physical and sexual partner violence. Furthermore, any such programs need to integrate a systemic approach in addressing IPV within the context of various marginalized experiences of Asian American women.     

Beyond Body Size: Focusing on Body Functionality to Improve Body Image Among Women Who Have Undergone Bariatric Surgery

This study investigated a novel technique to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery—namely, by having them focus on their body functionality (everything the body can do, rather than how it looks). Participants were 103 women (M_age = 46.61) who had undergone bariatric surgery 5–7 months prior to the study. They were randomized to the 1-week online intervention, comprising three functionality-focused writing exercises (Expand Your Horizon; Alleva et al., 2015), or to a wait-list control group. Body appreciation, appearance and functionality satisfaction, body awareness, self-objectification, self-esteem, and self-kindness were assessed at pretest, posttest, and at 1-week and 3-month follow-up. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that, compared to the control, the intervention group experienced improved body appreciation at posttest, and these improvements persisted at both follow-ups. These findings were nonsignificant when intent-to-treat analyses were performed. Both available case and intent-to-treat analyses showed that all participants experienced improvements in facets of body image across time. Qualitative analyses of participants’ responses to the intervention writing exercises provided more insight. Via coding reliability thematic analysis, we identified 11 themes that together provide evidence that intervention participants experienced facets of a more positive body image, while also facing challenges to their body image and well-being. Together, findings suggest that focusing on body functionality may contribute to improved body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery, but effects may be nuanced compared to prior functionality research among general samples of women. The study was registered retrospectively (ClinicalTrials.gov; identifier NCT04883268).     

Socially Optimized Learning in a Virtual Environment: Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior Among Men Who Have Sex With Men

A socially optimized learning approach, which integrates diverse theoretical perspectives, places men who have sex with men (MSM) in an interactive virtual environment designed to simulate the emotional, interpersonal, and contextual narrative of an actual sexual encounter while challenging and changing MSM's more automatic patterns of risky responses. MSM assume a character's identity and are scaffolded in their decision‐making and relearning process by supportive, and often humorous, peer coaches who encourage situated learning of self‐regulatory and behavioral skills, and tailor and frame their responses to be responsive to the men's behavioral choices. In a longitudinal design, participants were randomly assigned to receive either an interactive video (IAV) intervention with peer counseling or to a peer‐counseling‐alone control. Compared to the counseling alone, men who also received the IAV reduced risky anal sex behaviors and increased protected anal sex behaviors.     

Predicting Relationship of Smoking Behavior Among Male Saudi Arabian College Students Related to Their Religious Practice

This study describes the relationships of smoking behavior among a sample of male college students in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to their religious practice, parents’ smoking behaviors and attitudes, peers’ smoking behaviors and attitudes, and knowledge about the dangers of smoking. A 49-item questionnaire was developed and pilot tested in KSA. This questionnaire was completed during the academic year 2013 by 715 undergraduate male students at the King Saud University in Riyadh. 29.8 % of the students were smokers (13.8 % cigarette smokers, 7.3 % sheesha smokers, and 27 % cigarette and sheesha smokers). Students in the College of Education were much more likely to be smokers than the students in the College of Science. The differences between the College of Education and the College of Science was statistically significant (χ² = 16.864. df = 1, p = .001). Logistic regression analysis suggested that students who were more faithful in their practice of Islam were 15 % less likely to smoke. Students who were more knowledgeable about the dangers of smoking were 8 % less likely to smoke. The logistic analysis identified peers (friends) as the most powerful factor in predicting smoking. The four-factor model had an overall classification accuracy of 78 %. The need to understand more fully the dynamics of peer relations among Saudi Arabian males as a basis for developing tobacco education/prevention programs. Prevention programs will need to include education and changes in the college level or earlier in KSA.     

中国城市妇女赋予丈夫吸烟行为的象征意义研究

对不同社会背景的城市妇女进行深入访谈发现,其赋予丈夫吸烟行为的人类学意义为:成瘾,坏毛病,缺乏责任感,减压,小事情,男人社交方式和男性特征.由此得出结论,就女性而言,开展预防来自于其丈夫的二手烟的健康教育,应在传播吸烟和被动吸烟危害知识的基础上,设法改变其对丈夫吸烟行为的价值判断.     

Single-Session Personalized Cognitive Counseling to Change HIV Risk Behavior Among HIV-Negative Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Two-Part Case Study

Two previous randomized controlled clinical trials have shown the effectiveness of a single-session cognitive intervention, personalized cognitive counseling (PCC), in decreasing HIV risk among men who have sex with men (MSM; Dilley et al., 2002; Dilley et al., 2007). PCC is a counseling technique based on social cognitive theory and the stages of change model and incorporates techniques from cognitive therapy and motivational interviewing. Theoretically, PCC encourages the client to examine his self-justifications, or rationalizations, at the time of intercourse, so he will better understand the thinking behind his decision to have unprotected anal sex. Upon exploring self-justifications that increased risk, we hypothesize that men became more self-aware of the ways in which they made sexual decisions and were thereby better prepared to more realistically assess risk in future sexual situations and make different decisions to decrease their HIV risk.This case study analyzes the PCC intervention of 2 HIV-negative men who have high-risk unprotected sex with men of uncertain HIV status. We present excerpts from the recordings of the interventions to better understand how the technique works. We believe that PCC can be a powerful tool in changing HIV risk behavior and merits more application and study to decrease HIV transmission.     

Performing and Declining PGD: Accounts of Jewish Israeli Women Who Carry a <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Mutation or Partners of Male Mutation Carriers

To describe factors associated with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) decisions among Jewish Israeli BRCA1/2 carriers or spouses of a male carrier, we contacted all women who initiated PGD consultation for embryonic BRCA1/2 mutation detection at Sheba Medical Center, prior to March 2014. Applying a qualitative approach, we asked women to elaborate on the factors they considered in either opting for PGD or discontinuing the screening procedure. Participants were 18 Jewish Israeli women; 14 were carriers of one of the Ashkenazi founder mutations in BRCA1/2, and four were spouses of male mutation carriers, who underwent at least one cycle of PGD. Prior to seeking PGD, ten of the women had no children. At the time of the interview, all but three had at least one child. Three factors emerged as key motivators for PGD: having witnessed the disease in a close relative (n = 12); prior IVF treatment for infertility (n = 12); and having pre-existing frozen embryos (n = 6). Ten women withdrew from the PGD process due to clinical, logistical, and financial reasons. In conclusion, most women decided to withdraw from PGD instead of continuing until a successful conception was achieved. Those who opted for PGD attributed their discontinuation of further screening to the emotional burden that is greatly intensified by practical difficulties.