Efficacy of group therapy of learned helplessness, locus of control and current functioning with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse / by Nancy K. Montgomery.

Abstract

Increasing numbers of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse are coming forth to seek aid for problems stemming from their abuse experiences. Long-term consequences for survivors are believed to affect every facet of human functioning. The efficacy of one therapeutic group on learned helplessness, locus of control and current levels of functioning with female survivors of childhood sexual abuse was investigated. Subjects were comprised of female volunteers, recruited from the Catholic Family Development Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Multimodal Life History Inventory (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1991), the Modality Analysis of Current Problems (adapted from the Multimodal Life History Inventory), the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Seligman, 1990), the Social Reaction Inventory (Rotter, 1966) and a Satisfaction Questionnaire designed for use in this investigation served as psychometric tools. The results indicated significant change between first and last testings on behavior descriptors, personal belief statement scores (cognition modality) and level of helplessness scores. The remaining modalities and the locus of control scores were statistically nonsignificant. Subjects were generally satisfied with the therapeutic group. The major criticism reported by subjects concerned the relatively brief duration of the therapy group. Several proposals for future areas of investigation were recommended.