Trauma Symptoms in Sexual Abuse Counselors at Centers Funded by the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault

There were two purposes of this study . The first was to describe the demographic nature of counselors at the 30 Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (!CASA) funded centers and their responses to a trauma symptom checklist developed for use with sexual abuse victims. The second purpose was to determine if there is a significant difference in the means of responses to the Trauma Symptom Checklist=33 when sub jects were divided into two categories . Subjects (N=81) were placed in the nominal categories of Victims (those who reported personal sexual trauma, N=41, 50.6%) and Non-Victims (those who did not report personal sexual trauma, N=40, 49.4%). Subjects were 81 female counselors who volunteered or were paid to provide counseling for victims of rape and sexual abuse in Illinois !CASA-funded centers. By mail, counselors responded anonymously to items on a personal data sheet and the Trauma Symptom Checklist-33. Demographic data was reported . The range, mean and mode of individual total scores, and an analysis of the significant difference in mean scores between victims and non-victims was reported. The null hypothesis, that there would be no difference in mean scores, was rejected . A conclusion of the study was that counselors in !CASA centers which counsel victims of sexual assault and their families and significant others do experience various symptoms of trauma. Future studies should focus on clarifying the causes of trauma symptomology. Limitations of the study were presented and recommendations were made for possible studies in the future