Developing Effective Treatments for Child Physical Abuse

描述(由申请人提供)：儿童身体虐待(CPA)与一系列令人衰弱的心理社会后遗症有关，如创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)、抑郁、攻击性行为、解决社会问题的技能和沟通技能差，以及对他人的同理心和敏感度较低。如果不治疗，这些行为还可能升级为青春期和成年期的暴力、犯罪行为，以及约会关系中的辱骂或强迫行为。这种行为可能会在CPA受害者的一生中以成人关系和亲子互动的方式持续下去。尽管将父母包括在内并阻止持续的虐待是至关重要的，但有必要帮助儿童治愈，以防止长期的情感困难，并打破最终的暴力循环。 本研究旨在开发和检验一种群体认知行为治疗模式的相对有效性，该模式涉及有反复CPA风险的家庭中的儿童和父母。研究假设，亲子团体CBT联合干预在降低儿童创伤后应激障碍和抑郁症状、虐待相关归因和行为困难，以及总体父母教养技能、父母对儿童行为的归因和愤怒唤起方面优于单纯亲子团体CBT干预。在探索性的基础上，将考察父母对与子女养育状况有关的失败的归因，以及儿童与虐待有关的归因，以考察其缓和影响。参与者将是儿童(8至13岁)及其违规的家庭成员。将进行标准化评估，以评估父母的愤怒唤醒、对儿童行为的信念、父母的养育做法、父母对儿童行为模式和创伤后应激障碍症状的报告、儿童对创伤后应激障碍、抑郁、愤怒和对父母养育方式的感知的自我报告，以及暴力管教策略的使用。在初步评估后，儿童和/或他们的父母将接受随机确定的团体治疗类型(亲子认知行为联合疗法(CBT)与仅限家长的CBT)。评估将在治疗前、治疗后和3个月的随访中进行。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child physical abuse (CPA) has been associated with a wide range of debilitating psychosocial sequelae, such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, aggressive behavior, poor social problem-solving skills and communication skills, as well as lower levels of empathy and sensitivity towards others. Without treatment, these behaviors may also escalate into violent, criminal behavior in adolescence and adulthood, as well as abusive or coercive behaviors in dating relationships. The behavior may persist throughout CPA victims' lives in adult relationships and parent-child interactions. Although it is critical to include the parent and stop the ongoing abuse, it is necessary to help the child heal to prevent long-term emotional difficulties and to break an eventual cycle of violence. The present study is aimed at developing and examining the relative efficacy of a group cognitive-behavioral treatment model that involves the child and parent in families at risk for repeated CPA. It is hypothesized that the Combined Parent-Child Group CBT intervention will be superior to the Parent-Only Group CBT intervention for reducing children's PTSD and depressive symptoms, abuse-specific attributions, and behavioral difficulties, as well as overall parenting skills, parental attributions about children's behavior, and anger arousal. Parental attributions about failure associated with child rearing situations, and children's abuse-related attributions will be examined for their moderating influences on an exploratory basis. Participants will be children (ages 8 to 13) and their offending family members. Standardized evaluations will be conducted to assess parents' anger arousal, beliefs about children's behavior, parenting practices, parent reports of children's behavior patterns and PTSD symptoms, children's self-reports of PTSD, depression, anger, and perception of parenting style, as well as the use of violent disciplining strategies. After the initial assessment, children and/or their parents will receive a randomly determined group treatment type (Combined Parent-Child Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) vs. Parent-Only CBT). Assessments will be conducted at pre- and post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up.