This report was originally available on the Raranga Whatumanawa website which is no longer available. A hard copy of this report was in the collection transferred from MSD in March 2011.

This is one of a series of reports produced by Raranga Whatumanawa (The weaving of the heart patterns), a research project undertaken by the Psychology Clinic at Massey University, in conjunction with the Psychology Centre in Hamilton, to investigate the mental health assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes resulting from sexual abuse. The research was funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand (ACC) and contributes to the development of useable national practice guidelines. This particular report provides the findings of a study of 113 females, males and transgender adult participants with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The study utilised the RESA (Reporting Effects of Sexual Abuse) instrument to measure maladaptive functioning. Data were collected using an advanced Q-sort method (Method of Successive Sort - MOSS) and were integrated into a framework developed by Pechtel, Harvey and Evans, 2005a. Mapping the Hypothesised Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse : A Coherent Framework from Childhood to Adulthood, Technical Report 4. The authors argue that their findings validated two of the dimensions of this framework and also highlighted the meaningful interrelationship of effects, providing a first indication of coping strategies and possible functions of underlying co-occurring effects. Individual symptom profiles were outlined using effect clusters or hot-spots as standard points of comparison. The authors argue that this method of subjective profiling can benefit sexual abuse counselling by allowing areas of concerned functioning to be identified via visual profiles using RESA. The limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for future research are made. Please do not cite or quote this Technical report without permission.

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Technical report: 4b