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Biomedical subjects

W D Pithers

Publications and source records attributed to W D Pithers.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Developmental and etiological characteristics of children with sexual behavior problems: treatment implications.

OBJECTIVE: Baseline data are reported on the demographics, psychological adjustment, victimization, and perpetration histories of 127 6- to 12-year-old children who have engaged in developmentally unexpected sexual behaviors. Information regarding the children's caregivers, and their extended families, is also presented. Data were collected during intake of the families into a longitudinal treatment outcome study. METHOD: A comprehensive battery of psychometric devices and a structured interview were completed with 127 children with sexual behavior problems and their primary caregivers at intake to a treatment outcome study. RESULTS: More than half of the children engaging in developmentally unexpected sexual behaviors had been abused both sexually and physically by more than two different perpetrators. One-third of the people who had maltreated these children were less than 18 years old. These children had acted out against an average of two other children. High levels of distress in the children and their caregivers were evident across a number of psychometric and historical variables. CONCLUSION: Children with sexual behavior problems exhibited a number of functional impairments commonly associated with maltreatment, including learning and psychiatric disorders. Their caregivers and families manifested several characteristics that deter children's recovery from maltreatment, including an impaired attachment between parent and child. The scope of the children's problems requires that treatment extend beyond the therapist's office to include schools and other agencies or individuals with whom the child and families have regular contact.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1998

Caregivers of children with sexual behavior problems: psychological and familial functioning.

OBJECTIVE: This research examined demographic and functional characteristics of parents of children with sexual behavior problems. METHOD: Families of 72 children with sexual behavior problems completed a structured interview and several psychometric devices at intake into a treatment outcome study. RESULTS: As a group, caregivers manifested signs of a high level of life stress across a wide array of variables, including income, criminal arrest, family violence, sexual abuse, social support, modulation of emotion, and attachment to their child. Foster parents consistently reported significantly lower levels of stress than biological parents. CONCLUSION: Parents and families of children with sexual behavior problems appear multiply entrapped. They are highly distressed and somewhat isolated. The data convincingly demonstrate that in order to maximize the efficacy of treatment for children with sexual behavior problems, parents must be centrally involved and receive services coordinated with those of their child. Group treatment may be advisable to foster formation of a network of peer support for caregivers of children with sexual behavior problems.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Process evaluation of a group therapy component designed to enhance sex offenders' empathy for sexual abuse survivors.

A process evaluation was conducted to assess the extent to which a specialized treatment group might enhance the offenders' empathy for sexual abuse survivors. Therapeutic efficacy was assessed through pre- and post-treatment administration of a battery of paper-and-pencil inventories. Pedophiles demonstrated greater empathy at pre-treatment and post-treatment than rapists. Surprisingly, pedophiles and rapists did not differ in pre-treatment endorsement of cognitive distortions hypothetically related to rape. Post-treatment psychological inventories revealed significant changes on a variety of empathetic qualities. The results suggests that highly-specialized interventions can enhance sex offenders' empathy for sexual abuse victims and decrease endorsement of distortions justifying sexualized violence. Follow-up is underway to determine if these changes are associated with long-term reductions in recidivism.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Schizophrenic/paranoid psychoses: determining diagnostic divisions.

Metadiagnostic guidelines are delineated for evaluating the utility of both existing diagnostic criteria and recently proposed revisions (Magaro 1980). Among the metadiagnostic guidelines are the demonstration of differential treatment-outcome relationships for different disorders and the applicability of the characteristics of a superordinate diagnosis to its subordinate (or subtype) diagnoses. The authors note the conceptual development of the schizophrenia construct. Attempts to verify the existence of subtypes of schizophrenia in psychoanalytic theory, demographic traits, psychological assessment, and behavioral research are reviewed. Data accumulated from these efforts provide evidence regarding the validity of the distinction between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia proposed by Magaro (1980). The authors conclude that a number of alternate relationships between paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes may by hypothesized. Only the notion that paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes are representative of differences in severity of schizophrenia may be rejected. As yet, little evidence exists for choosing one of the remaining alternatives as correct. Integrating research from diverse fields of study is advocated in the effort to refine conceptions of psychiatric disorders. In addition to continued attempts to make improvements in psychiatric diagnosis by changing the clinical symptoms used to define disorders, refinements may be accelerated by assessing the potential utility of other sources of information as the basis for psychiatric diagnosis. Performance on tasks employed in behavioral psychopathology research may represent such an example.

Cognition↗