Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains a significant public health problem. Although the deleterious effects on the child victims could be mitigated through evidence-based interventions, victims often fail to be identified and receive clinical assessment and therapy services, particularly when they have been victimized by another youth. Given that at least a third of CSA cases are committed by another youth, understanding the process of identifying and addressing the needs of CSA victims of youth is the focus of the present study. Factors impacting services for child victims of youths with problematic sexual behavior (PSB) were examined through qualitative interviews (N = 226) with mental health agency administrators, direct service providers, and community stakeholders from eight geographically diverse communities across the United States. Responses focused on macro and micro level barriers to the identification and service provision for child victims of PSB of youths. Implications for clinicians and policymakers are discussed, along with strategies to enhance access and provision of services to meet the needs of the child victims.
This article provides in-depth illustration of methodological considerations for integrating qualitative methods into economic evaluation of psychosocial interventions. Whereas economic costs and benefits of such interventions are typically measured using quantitative research methodologies, we advocate for qualitative researchers from psychology to contribute to this field of study. Additionally, we demonstrate how qualitative research methodologies greatly enhance means of identifying costs and benefits that would be missed, or underappreciated, with a purely quantitative approach. The Community-Based Services for Problematic Sexual Behavior of Youth Project is utilized as an illustrative example for conducting qualitative economic evaluation of a psychosocial intervention. Rather than presenting empirical results, methodological implications for psychological science are discussed, as well key insights gleaned from conducting qualitative economic evaluation. We also enumerate ways that qualitative psychology researchers can demonstrate their value to cost and interventions researchers.
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