Date

5-16-2024

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Natalie Hamrick

Keywords

child sexual abuse, resilience, coping, religious coping, practitioner perspectives, qualitative

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Traumatic events, such as child sexual abuse (CSA) can negatively impact a child’s development across multiple biopsychosocial domains. Yet, many who experience CSA emerge resilient. Resilience involves multiple internal and external strengths that enhance a person’s ability to move beyond adversity and thrive. Research has pointed to the protective influence of spiritual and religious coping (R/S coping) among trauma survivors; however, there remains an absence of knowledge regarding the use of R/S coping in children. Therefore, I sought to fill the gap in the literature and capture the experiences of mental health practitioners who treat children who have experienced CSA, with the goal of understanding practitioners’ experience with resilience in their child clients, with a special emphasis on the use of R/S coping. Using qualitative phenomenological methodology, I conducted interviews with 15 mental health practitioners who work with sexually abused children. Important components of a child’s resilience included external assets such as nurturing and supportive caregivers, and community-based and supportive group activities. Internal child resilience resources included practicing problem-solving coping, leveraging interpersonal resources, emotion-regulation and meaning-making. Spiritual resilience behaviors children use included the connection between the mind and body, attunement outside of self, and engaging in compassionate behaviors. Religious coping practices included spiritual connection with God, family and others; finding support from prayer, religious music and writings, and forgiveness; and meaning-making. Children did experience some spiritual struggle as a result of dismissive or invalidating religious statements, judgement, and CSA connected to the religious community, but many were able to successfully resolve these spiritual struggles. Practitioners reported being careful to assess, explore, and integrate a child’s religious and spiritual beliefs as appropriate. Practitioners incorporated religious coping during relaxation or regulation practice, during cognitive processing of the trauma, and through creative methods with young clients. Insights from this study confirm and add to current understanding about CSA and resilience in children. Themes discovered from the exploration of R/S coping in children reveal aspects of positive and negative religious coping that can enhance or reduce resilience. Additionally, this study exposes important insights regarding practitioners’ assessment and incorporation of R/S coping in work with sexually abused children.

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