Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
An evaluation of a constructivist intervention for sexually abused boys
Abstract
When families of children who have experienced extra-familial sexual abuse are included in treatment, they are often seen by therapists who are viewed as experts using psychoeducational models. Such a framework does not emphasize how families discover their own resources or develop new meanings of their experiences. This study evaluated whether, and how, a program based on constructivist principles helped to empower a group of sexually abused boys and their families by creating a collaborative, rather than a hierarchical, therapeutic relationship. A post-treatment evaluation was performed by means of three semi-structured interviews and completion of two simple questionnaires. Through in-depth interviews with the boys and their families, information was gathered on the subjective experiences of the clients regarding both the abuse and the healing process. Themes were generated from the data in the final analysis to assess severity of PTSD symptoms and to describe the constructivist group process. A model was proposed for the treatment of extra-familial sexual abuse based on constructivist principles.
Subject Area
School counseling|Clinical psychology
Recommended Citation
Kellner, Lynne Ann, "An evaluation of a constructivist intervention for sexually abused boys" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9420639.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9420639