Sexual Behavior Problems and Premature Termination From Pediatric Trauma-Focused Treatment Among Sexually Abused Children.

Abstract

Premature termination from child trauma-focused treatment is common; however, the role of children's level of symptoms as a risk factor for attrition remains uncertain. In particular, children's sexual behavior problems (SBPs) have received scant attention in the prior attrition literature, and no known studies to date have thoroughly examined SBPs in relation to premature treatment termination. The current study investigated whether higher levels of children's SBPs were associated with increased risk for attrition from trauma-focused treatment in a sample of 242 sexually abused children aged 2-12 years (M = 7.48 years, SD = 2.68; 64.5% female, 54.1% White). To assess the potential associations between SBPs and treatment dropout more thoroughly, two definitions of attrition were utilized: (a) clinician-rated dropout and (b) whether the child received an adequate dose of treatment (i.e., 12 or more sessions). Whereas only 34.3% of the children completed treatment per their clinician, 69.4% received an adequate dose of treatment. In contrast to the study hypotheses, neither development-related nor sexual abuse-specific SBPs were associated with either clinician-rated dropout or adequate dose status, ORs = 0.99-1.00. Sexual acting-out behaviors in sexually abused children may not correspond with attrition from trauma-focused treatment at multiple points of treatment. Given the heterogeneity of SBPs, further assessment of whether attrition patterns differ across subgroups of children who exhibit SBPs is needed.