Resilience & Adult Attachment

In Cases of Child Sexual Abuse

Jane F. Gilgun
Wendy Anderson

Basic Principles: Styles of Adult Attachment Case Examples Cont’d

Assessment
•Ideas from adult attachment theory can contribute Dismissive
to assessments that promote child and family
resilience
I wasn’t going to say anything to anybody because he had threatened me…..When I did get home… I saw him
in the hall. I realized I couldn’t stay there in the same building with him. I went and stayed with my girlfriend. I
•Assessment for styles of adult attachment are told her mother. …. When I walked through the door she knew what had happened. I stayed with her a couple
days before I told my mom. She didn’t believe me. Of course she went and she confronted Rick (not his real
more accurate when provides pay attention to name). He told her that I seduced him. Then she gave him my motorcycle... so he could get away.

Disorganized
•Family relationships in other social networks
•Meeting basic human needs Donna has a history of untreated child sexual abuse, substance abuse, and mental health
issues. Her four children were physically and sexually abused, some began sexually acting
•Their competence to work effectively out on each other. Donna does not seem to be able to grasp the severity of the abuse
and presents her story in a confusing and disorganized way. 3 out of 4 children were
with adults and children who are members removed from her care.
of families where child sexual abuse has “You know like, we had a fire in 2005, and so we were stuck in a hotel room. The kids were
going swimming, and they came back and they were horsing around naked, cause, there’s
occurred only two showers at a time, and I was tryin to find a place to live, and you know, we had to
talk about boundaries. And it was certainly not something I condoned, but I didn’t think it
was—I mean we just lost—the fire was primarily in the kids’ floor. They just lost everything
they had, and if they were going to find some self-comfort in their bodies, I was kinda ok
with that….I think the charges that—as I understand them, are that, when I was pregnant
with Sam, I explained the birds and the bees to Emma, and she became very curious from
that talk and sexualized Jake. So. Most of the system says that can’t be possible. But I don’t
think they take into consideration that not only was I pregnant, but then I was pregnant
with twins, and then I was pregnant with a dead twin.”

Case Examples of Parental Responses

Guidelines for Intervention
Categorized by Adult Attachment
Cases are from research on survivors and mothers of survivors •An overall goal is for service providers to foster child
survivors’ secure relationships with other people. The
Secure/Resolved ideal place to cultivate these relationships are with
Alice found out her husband had been sexually abusing her two daughters. They immediately parents and siblings, but can be established outside of
separated and eventually divorced. She sought sex abuse counseling for her girls and supportive the immediate family as well.
counseling for herself. Her ex-husband never took responsibility for the abuse.

“I knew it instinctively, that once I picked up that phone and called Child Protection that I’d
probably lose my house, the car, my friends, my church, everything. I would lose everything. And
•Parents and children require emotional support,
I thought, is it worth it? You better damn well believe it’s worth it. I will not have my kid be education about child sexual abuse, and safe places
molested. I would rather be on the street poor, and have my freedom. And I know that better
than anybody. And to me, that’s worth it, if she doesn’t have to be molested anymore. I’d rather
where they can work on repairing any breaks in their
have it that way.“ relationships.
Preoccupied
•Service providers can be of great help when they
Children thrive in the Joy has a history of child sexual abuse, drug addiction and was diagnosed with depression. Upon
disclosure of the abuse, she lost custody of her daughter and went into inpatient drug treatment and
offer opportunities where children can experience
competence. Children in deep crisis and may require a
safety of secure counseling to address her unattended trauma. After successful treatment and counseling, Joy and her
daughter have reunited. lot of supportive work before they can engage in
activities they enjoy.
relationships “When you think that you’re protecting your child from that, cause it happened to you and you want to
prevent that to happen to her—I didn’t see. I mean, I was so down on myself that I allowed that to
happen to my daughter. It feels like I was just being selfish, only thinking about getting high and stuff, •Service providers may need to provide services to
you know, with this person. I was like, wow, you know, all this stuff that I was hearing, and graphic
details and stuff. I don’t even like to even talk about that. I was confused, I didn’t know what to do, I meet basic human needs such as for safety, food,
didn’t want to deal with the problem. I stayed high for at least a month before I went into treatment. I
didn’t think about getting help or therapy. I thought I don’t need it.”
clothing, housing, and medical care.