Community Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse: A Survey of Practitioners in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network

Practitioners from numerous agencies who sought training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in several regional sites under the auspices of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network completed a baseline survey to describe their backgrounds, settings, practices, attitudes, and perceived outcomes with sexually abused children and youth. The results documented a range of experiences and common treatment practices, and identified contributors to practitioners’ use of gradual exposure and perceived levels of positive treatment outcome. The results were not accounted for by geographic region or agency. The findings support recommendations to optimize research and training related to the dissemination of evidence-based treatments in the child abuse field.