Making Meaning of Traumatic Events: Youths’ Strategies for Processing Childhood Sexual Abuse are Associated With Psychosocial Adjustment

Abstract

The need to make meaning of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is common and often persists long after the abuse ends. Although believed to be essential for healthy recovery, there is a paucity of research on how youth process their CSA experiences. The current study identified individual differences in the ways youth process their CSA and examined associations with psychosocial adjustment. A sample of 108 youth with confirmed abuse histories enrolled in the study within 8 weeks of abuse discovery, when they were between 8 and 15 years old. Six years later, they participated in interviews about their CSA experiences, reactions, and perceived effects. Using a coding system developed for this study, youths’ CSA narratives were reliably classified with one of three processing strategies: Constructive (13.9%), Absorbed (50%), or Avoidant (36.1%). Absorbed youth reported the highest levels of psychopathological symptoms, sexual problems, and abuse-specific stigmatization, whereas Constructive youth tended to report the fewest problems. Avoidant youth showed significantly more problems than Constructive youth in some but not all areas. Interventions that build healthy processing skills may promote positive recovery by providing tools for constructing adaptive meanings of the abuse, both in its immediate aftermath and over time.

Early Attrition From Treatment Among Women With Cooccurring Substance Use Disorders and PTSD

“…Previous studies have shown that treating women who have experienced chronic abuse can be more challenging, as these women demonstrate more negative consequences and treatment outcomes than their nonabused peers (e.g., Charney, Palacios-Boix, & Gill, 2007;Sacks, McKendrick, & Banks, 2008; T. L. Simpson & Miller, 2002). These findings might reflect how childhood and adolescence are critical periods of development, and suggest that women process and make meaning of traumatic experiences during childhood in different ways than they do during adulthood (Simon, Feiring, & McElroy, 2010). The nature of partner violence, where the abuser is also a romantic partner, could also impact how women process and make meaning of the abuse.…”

Perceptions of general and parenting-specific posttraumatic change among postpartum mothers with histories of childhood maltreatment

“…PTC was assessed from the semi-structured Trauma-Meaning Making Interview (TMMI; Simon, Feiring, & McElroy, 2010), which asks participants to describe their maltreatment; express their thoughts and feelings about the maltreatment and its discovery at the time it happened as well as over time; and to explain the perceived effects of their maltreatment experiences. For the current study, questions were added about the perceived impact of their CM experiences on becoming a parent and the parent–child relationship.…”

Talking (or Not Talking) about the Past: The Influence of Parent–Child Conversation about Negative Experiences on Children's Memories

“…Studies with young people who have experienced sexual abuse as children yield suggestive findings. Simon, Feiring, & Kobielski McElroy (2010) reported that 6 years after disclosure, only a minority of young people reported coherent narratives reflecting understanding of their abuse memories (defined as, for example, recounting from the point of view of themselves as children but retaining a present focus, constructing a causal understanding of their abuse). In contrast, the majority of participants (who also manifested greater trauma symptomatology) provided confusing, overly detailed, or very brief memories which, according to the researchers, suggested that they had difficulty making sense of the experience and were experiencing overwhelming emotion or avoidance.…”