The children’s programme: a description of a group and family intervention for children engaging in problematic and harmful sexual behaviour and their parents/carers

ABSTRACT

Children under 10 are increasingly being referred to services for concerning problematic or harmful sexual behaviour, but information about interventions to support these children and their families is limited. A 3-year pilot of a group cognitive–behavioural intervention for children and their parents/carers is described. Forty-nine children were referred to the programme with 27 completing the programme in this period. This is the first intervention of its kind to be delivered with a UK population and demographic information is provided about the children who have been assessed, including information about age, gender, family composition and abuse history. Outcome data from the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, Child Sexual Behaviour Inventory, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Parental Stress and Social Support Scale is reported. The available outcome data indicates the group has been largely beneficial in reducing problematic sexual behaviour. Key learning and implications for practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• CBT
• sexual offending
• pre-pubescent
• systemic
• replication
• fidelity

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the funding support from the Big Lottery Realising Ambition Fund and support from consortium partners. We wish to acknowledge the time taken by Victoria Jones, Be Safe Service Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist in reviewing this paper on several occasions, and also Erica Baker, Trainee Psychologist for further reviews and edits. We also wish to acknowledge Dr Jane Silovsky and Jimmy Widdifield from OUHSC for their support to deliver the programme, alongside their warmth, generosity, and humour. We also wish to acknowledge the Be Safe Team and their willingness to take on the challenge of delivering the programme and to ensure we delivered the programme in a way that was responsive to the needs of children. Most importantly we wish to acknowledge the children and their parents/carers who participated in the programme for their commitment and courage.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.