Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2008, Counselor Education (Education)

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 fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia Beamish PhD (Advisor); George Johanson PhD (Committee Member); Janson Gregory PhD (Committee Member); Tracy Leinbaugh PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education