Mental health treatment is a critical part of an effective and compassionate response to the disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA). Given the vast negative consequences for children and families following CSA, engagement in treatment can benefit youth and their non-offending caregivers. Yet, these families face unique barriers to treatment initiation, adherence, and effectiveness. The identification of these barriers allows clinicians, researchers, and policy makers to increase treatment utilization, engagement, and value. The current review and its recommendations derive from the existing literature combined with knowledge gained from a clinical research team with more than 20 years of experience offering a treatment program for CSA survivors and their non-offending family members. The review organizes barriers around factors related to individual characteristics of children and caregivers, perceptions and beliefs commonly held following CSA, and challenging family interactions in the context of individual and group treatment for CSA. Finally, barriers related to systemic and societal factors are examined given the importance of digitalcommons.unl.edu

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Children with ADHD may benefit from MPH to improve comprehension of and sustained attention during audiovisually presented learning material.

Caregiver responses and behaviors often play a significant role in a child’s recovery following child sexual abuse (CSA). Caregiver expectations of their child’s postabuse functioning has been associated with child symptoms, such that negative expectations lead to worse outcomes for the child. Additionally, caregivers who experienced maltreatment in their own childhood may face difficulties providing support to their child after CSA. Caregivers’ own psychological symptoms may influence their expectations for their child’s future functioning following CSA. This study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the association between caregivers’ childhood maltreatment histories, their expectations for their child’s future functioning following CSA, and the indirect effect of caregiver depressive symptoms on this relationship. Participants were 354 nonoffending caregivers presenting to treatment with their child following CSA disclosure. Caregivers were 23-72 years old ( M = 38.38, SD = 8.02), predominately white, and predominately biological mothers to the youth who were abused. Results indicated that caregivers who experienced maltreatment in childhood were more likely to experience depressive symptoms, which then lead to more negative expectations of their child’s future functioning. As negative expectations are associated with poorer outcomes for children following CSA, increased attention to caregivers’ depressive symptoms in treatment may promote more positive expectations for their child’s postabuse functioning.