Dissociation : Volume 10, No. 1 (March 1997)

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Dissociation : Volume 10, No. 1, p. 003-010 : Coping with incest in adult female survivors
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, 1997-03) Brand, Bethany; Warner, Stephanie C.; Alexander, Pamela C.
One hundred and one adult female survivors' recollections of coping with severe childhood incest were studied. Interviews were coded for ways of coping and categories of coping were created. These ways of coping were described in detail from the survivors' points of view. These strategies were noticeably different from the ways of coping found on standardized measures of coping. Despite having used a variety of strategies to survive childhood abuse, many of the interviewees felt they had not done "enough "to deal with or attempt to end the abuse. These findings imply that clinicians who are sensitively attuned to the age-appropriate ways of coping described by their clients can use these observations to challenge distorted beliefs about having been completely passive. Additional implications for future research and therapeutic interventions with survivors of incest are discussed.