The purpose of this study was to determine if therapist levels (therapists who treat sexual offenders, sexual abuse victims, and general population clients) differ in terms of therapists overall perceptions of permissive parent-child sexual boundaries and therapists altered perceptions of self, others, and adaptation to the world as a result of vicarious trauma.
Participants in this study consisted of graduate level therapists holding membership in one of three professional organizations: (a) Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), (b) American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), (c) American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA). Data were collected using four instruments: (a) Trauma and Attachment Belief Scale (TABS; Pearlman, 2003), (b) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS; Bride, 1999), and (c) Permissiveness of Parent- Child Sexual Boundary Scale (PPCSBS), and (d) demographic questionnaire. The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data.
Significant differences in the levels of therapists were found based upon professional organization membership. However, examination of the effect size (.05) found the differences between the therapist levels to be quite small and unimpressive. ATSA members reported significant differences in increased disrupted cognitive schemas (as measured by TABS) compared to APSAC members and AMHCA members. ATSA members scored significantly higher on the TABS subscales for Other-Safety, Other-Trust, and Other-Esteem. AMHCA members reported significant differences in permissive parent-child sexual boundaries behaviors (as measured by PPCSBS) compared to APSAC and ATSA members. AMHCA members reported sexual boundary behaviors to be appropriate for only younger age children, while the APSAC and ATSA members reported sexual boundary behaviors to be appropriate for both younger age and slightly older age children.
No significant differences in the levels of therapists were found based upon the number of hours per week treating sexual offender and sexual abuse victim clients together. However, supplemental analyses found increased TABS subscale scores of Other-Safety, Other-Trust, and Other-Esteem for therapists treating sexual offender clients 20 or more hours per week. No significant differences in the levels of therapists were found based upon the number of years of clinical experience.
Lastly, examination of the PPCSBS instrument found the scale to be unrelated to the TABS and STSS. The TABS and STSS were found to be highly correlated instruments of vicarious trauma. Thus it appears that therapists' perceptions of permissive parent-child sexual boundaries are unrelated to symptoms of vicarious trauma.