Counseling Sexually Abused Girls: The Impact of Sex of Counselor

Objective: The present study was conducted to assess the impact of sex of counselor on the therapeutic process for sexually abused girls in individual counseling. Method: Raters evaluated videotapes of counseling sessions recorded for 35 sexually abused girls who had been systematically assigned to brief-term psychoeducationally oriented treatment with either a male or female counselor. Clients\u27 in-session behavior was rated using accepted therapeutic process measures, while statistically controlling for the effect of girls\u27 pretreatment comfort level with male and female counselors. Results: Overall, MANCOVA results revealed that girls\u27 participation in counseling was not significantly related to session number. the child\u27s age (i.e., preadolescent vs, adolescent), or the sex of counselor who provided treatment services. However, univariate results and graphic representations of girls\u27 behavior suggest that adolescent clients, when compared with their preadolescent counterparts, seemed to be more reluctant to discuss certain child sexual abuse topics. Conclusions: The findings suggest that caution is warranted regarding categorical recommendations on the assignment of young female survivors to male counselors. Delimitations and limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd