Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children: impact of the trauma narrative and treatment length.

BACKGROUND

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with the development of a variety of mental health disorders, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an established treatment for children who have experienced CSA. However, there are questions about how many TF-CBT sessions should be delivered to achieve clinical efficacy and whether a trauma narrative (TN) component is essential. This study examined the differential effects of TF-CBT with or without the TN component in 8 versus 16 sessions.

METHODS

Two hundred and ten children (aged 4-11 years) referred for CSA and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment conditions: 8 sessions with no TN, 8 sessions with TN, 16 sessions with no TN, and 16 sessions with TN.

RESULTS

Mixed-model ANCOVAs demonstrated that significant posttreatment improvements had occurred with respect to 14 outcome measures across all conditions. Significant main and interactive effect differences were found across conditions with respect to specific outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

TF-CBT, regardless of the number of sessions or the inclusion of a TN component, was effective in improving participant symptomatology as well as parenting skills and the children's personal safety skills. The eight session condition that included the TN component seemed to be the most effective and efficient means of ameliorating parents' abuse-specific distress as well as children's abuse-related fear and general anxiety. On the other hand, parents assigned to the 16 session, no narrative condition reported greater increases in effective parenting practices and fewer externalizing child behavioral problems at posttreatment.