Treating Fear and Anxiety in Sexually Abused Children: Results of a Controlled 2-Year Follow-Up Study

Abstract

Fear and anxiety are the most commonly reported symptoms in sexually abused children. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of specific interventions designed to reduce fear and anxiety to a standard group treatment program for sexually abused children would result in greater reductions in these symptoms. In this study, 80 children ages 4 to 13 were randomly assigned to 10-week index or comparison treatment groups. Both treatment groups included common elements of conventional sexual abuse treatment, and the index group included stress inoculation training (SIT) and gradual exposure treatment procedures. Children and parents were assessed before treatment, immediately after treatment, and 1 year and 2 years after treatment. As had been hypothesized, both treatment groups improved significantly over time on most outcome measures. However, no differences were found between the groups in improvement on fear and anxiety symptoms. Possible explanations for these results and implications for practice and research are discussed.