Treatment Beliefs and Techniques of Clinicians Serving Child Maltreatment Survivors

Abstract

A significant focus in the child maltreatment field is greater dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBTs). Research has attempted to identify attitudes toward EBTs and training experiences that predict clinicians’ use of EBTs; however, these findings have yielded mixed results. This study reports on the results of a nationwide (United States) sample of 256 clinicians serving child maltreatment survivors, who completed questionnaires assessing beliefs about the clinical process, treatment technique selection, and attitudes toward EBTs. Psychometric data are presented on two new scales. The first scale examines clinicians’ beliefs about two components of the clinical process: (1) the extent to which treatment should be structured/directed by the clinician and (2) children’s verbal capacity to discuss traumatic events. The second scale assesses clinician-reported selection of various treatment techniques and contains four subscales: Cognitive–Behavioral, Play/Experiential, Psychodynamic, and Uncommon. Using these scales, a series of analyses were performed to determine which attitudes, beliefs, and training variables were associated with the selection of treatment techniques. After controlling for the impact of other variables, significant associations between the two clinical process beliefs and cognitive–behavioral and play/experiential techniques utilization were observed. Implications of these results for increasing implementation of EBTs with child maltreatment survivors are discussed.