The role of age and mode of delivery in the STEPS intervention: a longitudinal pilot-study in treatment of posttraumatic stress symptoms in Danish survivors of sexual assault

Figures & data

Figure 1. An outline of the STEPS protocol, session-by-session (1–8), victim group

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and attrition for sample at T1-T4

	T1		T2		T3		T4
	N	M (SD)	N	M (SD)	N	M (SD)	N	M (SD)
HTQ	96	45.7 (7.1)	62	35.4 (8.8)	51	34.3 (9.1)	44	31.7 (8.5)
TSC total	89	57.7 (9.3)	61	45.3 (9.6)	50	43.7 (9.9)	41	41.1 (9.4)
TSC Negative affectivity	89	22.5 (5.1)	61	17.4 (4.3)	50	16.8 (4.8)	41	16 (4.5)
TSC Somatization	89	25.3 (4.6)	61	20 (5)	50	19.4 (4.5)	41	17.9 (4.9)
TSC Dissociation	89	9.8 (2.3)	61	7.9 (2)	50	7.5 (2)	41	7.2 (1.8)
Attrition-rate
HTQ			35.4%		17.8%		13.7%
TSC			31.5%		18%		18%

Attrition is calculated with reference to the previous time-point.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for outcomes at T1 across sample characteristics

		HTQ total		TSC total		TSC negative affectivity		TSC somatization		TSC dissociation		N months since assault		Age
		M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
Age-group	13–18 yr	45.94	8.23	59.26	9.54	24.11	5.42*	25.09	3.98	10.06	2.29	17.79	17.92	16.33	1.44
	19–100 yr	45.51	6.43	56.67	9.06	21.44	4.62	25.51	4.91	9.70	2.39	65.46	80.54**	24.78	7.84**
Intervention	Individ.	45.94	7.14	58.58	8.61	23.18	4.15	25.46	4.15	9.94	2.43	55.78	85.22	22.79	7.90*
	Group	47.36	5.41	58.89	8.78	22.89	4.92	26.16	4.8	9.84	1.89	39.05	33.51	19.05	3.43
Dropout	Dropout	43.25	8.08	54.19	9.42	20.74	4.75	24.03	4.7	9.42	2.31	37	47.03	21.5	7.49
	Particip.	47.07	6.15	59.55	8.72	23.43	5.05	26.05	4.35	10.07	2.35	54.58	79.03	21.63	7.5

Independent samples t-test was used to test differences across outcomes for each of the conditions. Significant differences are listed in bold and the significantly larger of the two is flagged using *p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01. ‘Particip.’ refers to participants who participated in the treatment and completed at least T1 and T2. ‘Dropout’ refers to participants who dropped out after visitation. 'Individ.' refers to participants receiving the individual intercention.

Table 3. Estimates of main and interaction effect for the final model across outcomes

	Main effect			Main effect
	Time (log)			Age-group
	Estimate	t(df), p	Cohen’s d	Estimate	t(df), p	Cohen’s d
HTQ	−18.84	t(179.3) = −5.39, <.001	1.97	NS
TSC total	−20.6	t(175.3) = −5.03, <.001	2.01	NS
TSC Negative aff. (NA)	−7.07	t(180.1) = −3.28, <.001	1.55	6,65	t (180) = −2.58, .011
TSC Somatization (Som)	−10.31	t(169.5) = −5.18, <.001	1.83	NS
TSC Dissociation (Dis)	−3.22	t(168.3) = −3.36, <.001	1.43	NS

NS: Statistically nonsignificant. As noted in the Results section, the interaction-effect for age-group was statistically nonsignificant across all outcomes: HTQ: F(1,197.6) = .000, p = .993; TSC: F(1,188.3) = 1.388, p = .240; TSC_NA: F(1,192.2) = 2.068, p = .152; TSC_Som: F(1,186.3) = 0.676, p = .412; TSC_Dis: F(1,186.5) = 0.008, p = .928. The main effect for age-group was statistically non-significant, apart from for TSC_NA: HTQ: F(1,171.9) = 0.305, p = .993; TSC: F(1,188.3) = 1.388, p = .240; TSC_NA_ F(1,180) = 6.65, p = .011, t(180) = – 2.58, p = .011; TSC_Som: F(1,163.2) = 0.025, p = .875; TSC_Dis: F(1,170.4) = .649, p = .422. The interaction-effect for mode of intervention was statistically nonsignificant across all outcomes: HTQ: F(1,172.9) = 2.233, p = .137; TSC: F(1,167.6) = 2.315, p = .130; TSC_NA: F(1,170) = 1.991, p = .160; TSC_Som: F(1,164.2) = 3.674, p = .057; TSC_Dis: F(1,165.8) = 0.435, p = .510. The main effect for mode of intervention was statistically non-significant: HTQ: F(1,145.6) = 0.710, p = .401; TSC: F(1,151.4) = 0.363, p = .548; TSC_NA: F(1,161.6) = 0.140, p = .708; TSC_Som: F(1,142.7) = 1.254, p = .265; TSC_Dis: F(1,152.6) = 0.411, p = .522.

Figure 2. Flowchart of participant recruitment and dropout

Figure 3. Symptom development in HTQ score for all participants

Note: Y-axis is scaled to the range of scores at T1: 22–58.

Table 4. Probable endorsement of ICD-11 diagnoses

	T1	T2	T3	T4
Diagnosis	(n = 82)	(n = 61)	(n = 50)	(n = 41)
No diagnosis	14.6% (n = 12)	36.1% (n = 22)	40% (n = 20)	57.1% (n = 24)
PTSD	12.2% (n = 10)	29.5% (n = 18)	26% (n = 13)	23.8% (n = 10)
CPTSD	73.2% (n = 60)	34.4% (n = 21)	34% (n = 17)	19% (n = 8)

Diagnostic codes could not be assigned to all participants due to missing data. Percentages reported are valid percentages.