Article on Child Abuse

Copyright (c) 1998 American Psychological Association
Psychology, Public Policy and Law
December, 1998
4 Psych. Pub. Pol. and L. 941
LENGTH: 31647 words

FIRST REPORT OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION WORKING GROUP ON INVESTIGATION OF MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD ABUSE: Symptomatic Clients and Memories of Childhood Abuse: What the Trauma and Child Sexual Abuse Literature Tells Us

NAME: Judith L. Alpert, New York University, Laura S. Brown, Seattle, Washington and Christine A. Courtois, Psychiatric Institute of Washington

LEXISNEXIS SUMMARY:
... The American Psychological Association Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse was charged with reviewing relevant literature and making recommendations for future research directions as well as for clinical training and practice. ... We then provide a review of selected literature on the following topics: (a) the nature and consequences of trauma, particularly with regard to its potential effect on memory, and with special attention to trauma occurring during childhood; (b) child sexual abuse as a unique and potentially very traumatic form of interpersonal victimization; (c) dissociation and its functions both as a psychological defense against the impact of trauma and as the mental mechanism that most likely accounts for the amnesia and hypermnesia commonly experienced by traumatized individuals; and (d) memory in adults reporting a history of child sexual abuse, using available empirical data. ... The available research both on childhood trauma and memory and on child sexual abuse and memory is discussed in a later section of this report. ... Many of the coping strategies used by children to deal with sexual abuse can and do develop into dysfunctional cognitive, affective, relational, and behavioral patterns that lead to distress and the seeking of treatment in adult life (if not successfully treated during childhood). ... In B. A. van der Kolk (Ed.), Psychological trauma (pp. 31-62). ...