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The effect of experience on counsellor schema of sexually abused clients

University of British Columbia

The sexual abuse schemas of 97 counsellors were compared on the bases of experience (general counselling, specific sexual abuse counselling, and combined counselling), current client population (working with sexually abused clients or not), and whether they had their own history of childhood sexual abuse. Three inferential measures on a questionnaire were used to evaluate the dimensions of schematic complexity: organization, breadth, and extremity. They were, in order: two versions (one explicit and one disguised) of an "intake" vignette describing an adult woman with a history of childhood sexual abuse; a 100 list of adjectives to describe a sexually abused client; and 20 statements concerning sexual abuse effects. The primary finding was a strong relationship on the dimension of organization: counsellors were significantly more likely to identify sexual abuse as a treatment issue in response to an explicit sexual abuse vignette version than to a disguised version. There was no experience effect but post hoc analyses found significant results on likelihood of identifying sexual abuse in response to the disguised version when counsellors' client focus and personal childhood history of sexual abuse were considered. Current sexual abuse counsellors were more likely to identify it than non sexual abuse counsellors, and counsellors who had themselves been sexually abused as children were more likely to identify sexual abuse than were counsellors who had not. No differences were found on measures of breadth or extremity. Post hoc analyses suggested a tendency for counsellors of high and low experience to respond differently to a list of adjectives and a list of sexual abuse effects but these results did not reach significance.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-24

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3878

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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