Psychological treatment of intrafamily child sexual abuse: an integrative approach

Intrafamily child sexual abuse (CSA) is the most common form of child victimization. The long-term effects of CSA vary from person to person and are moderated by different factors, some of them abuse related, such as its frequency, severity and duration, and some involving the child developmental stage and the surrounding milieu. Evidence is growing that trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy is an effective treatment for sexually abused children. Treatment serves several functions including: the reduction and prevention of chronic trauma symptoms; developing and understanding of the meaning of the abusive event; helping family members express their feelings about the sexual abuse openly and exploring methods for coping and getting support. An integrative therapeutic approach taking into account sexually abused children and their relatives is proposed. There are also some suggestions for treatment according to the victimized children age and some indications about how to deal with relatives and with abused children in an integrative treatment. Further research should focus on outcome studies about treatment of intrafamily child sexual abuse with appropriate control groups and long-term follow-ups.