This systematic review analyzes empirically based medical literature relevant to the experiences of adult survivors of sexual abuse in the health care setting and what is known about providing sensitive care to this population. Effects of this trauma may impact the adult survivor's experience of care, health behaviors, and outcomes. The 10 articles reviewed in this study provide patient-based information on the experience of child sexual abuse and its impact on health and health care for patients. Suggestions are made for health care providers in two main areas: facilitation of communication and disclosure issues, and improving the experience of the health care encounter for survivors. Specific strategies are offered to assist in providing nonthreatening care encounters for adults who have been affected by childhood sexual trauma. Implications for research, practice, and policy for patients, health care providers, and social workers in the health care setting are discussed.
This article details the recovery process, including posttraumatic growth, for 15 adult daughters of battered women. Using qualitative inquiry, participants' recovery was found to involve a cognitive restructuring of childhood misconceptions of themselves, their parents, and the trauma itself. Key to this transformation process, and consequently allowing for posttraumatic growth, was an interwoven process of meaning-making including two specific elements of understanding: the cause and effect of domestic violence and the significance of suffering from such exposure in childhood. Distancing from their parents, education on domestic violence, accessing therapeutic/support services, and having a spiritual connection contributed to enhanced insight and wisdom. Implications include providing professionals with conceptual insights regarding how to identify and support adult daughters' lifelong recovery and growth.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE• Professionals working with adult survivors of childhood exposure to domestic violence should facilitate opportunities to explore how such individuals make meaning of their experiences.• Consistent with a strengths-based resiliency approach, professionals should look for ways to help clients recognize their abilities to learn and grow from negative experiences.
In an effort to discover what can improve family planning services for recently immigrated Hispanic women and to foster cultural competence among health care providers in this arena, the authors conducted four focus groups of recently immigrated Hispanic women in a mediumsized Midwestern community. The focus group discussions covered such topics as health care, knowledge of birth control, domestic life, and economic issues in the United States. The participants demonstrated knowledge of and support for the concept of family planning and specific birth control methods. They also identified issues that challenge the use of birth control at the individual, family, system, and cultural levels.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and intergenerational transmission of IPV in families are destructive social issues in need of considerable attention. Knowledge of the multi-level, complex causes, and consequences of IPV in the United States has increased significantly over the last two decades. Given these gains in learning, the authors’ aim here is to highlight recent critical and emerging theoretical perspectives on IPV. Frameworks included for application are intersectionality theory, historical trauma and decolonization, human rights, constructivist self-development theory, the posttraumatic growth paradigm, and adverse childhood experiences. This discussion will help to illuminate the dynamics of IPV that are actionable by practitioners using frameworks that promote cultural sensitivity, inclusion, and strengths-based practice with diverse populations. The authors discuss the scope of IPV while focusing on critical vulnerable people and exploring issues of relative privilege and oppression. Next, the authors review the historical body of theory informing understandings of IPV, and emerging theoretical frameworks on IPV. We offer conclusions throughout as they relate to the application of highlighted theories to IPV.
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