Mental health articles

Conservation of resources theory in sexual abuse. A method of considering the response of nonoffending guardians after disclosure is as a response to an extreme stressor. This premise is borrowed from Hobfoll’s (1989, 1991) conservation of resources theory. The underlying tenet of the conservation of resources theory is that “individuals strive to obtain, retain, and protect that which they value” (Hobfoll, Freedy, Green, & Solomon, 1996, p. 323). Those valuables they wish to retain, as well as the means for protecting and preserving them, are labeled resources. These resources can then be used to build other resources. Conversely, stress occurs when resources are threatened or lost or when invested resources fail to achieve an adequate gain. Available resources become increasingly depleted when multiple losses occur. Because resources are used to combat further stressful circumstances, individuals become “decreasingly capable of meeting stress challenges” as stressors mount, “resulting in loss spirals” (p. 326). Hobfoll et al. (1996) further consider a category of extreme stress in which the stressor (a) attacks the individual’s basic values, (b) makes excessive demands, (c) often comes without warning, (d) is “outside the realm of which resource utilization strategies have been practiced and developed,” and (e) leaves a “powerful mental image that is evoked by cues associated with the event” (p. 328). Extreme stressors not only result in more rapid resource loss but also may affect a broader band of resources. The availability of community, social or individual resources, however, can mediate reactions to extreme stress. The conservation of resources theory offers an important framework for understanding the response of nonoffending guardians to their child’s disclosure of sexual abuse. The original stressor, the abuse, results in a number of losses for both the victims and nonoffending guardians. Children experience a loss of innocence and often deteriorating wellbeing, whereas nonoffending guardians lose at the least their idealized, or wished for, childhood for their child. Many other major losses may also be associated with abuse disclosure. Intrafamilial abuse may threaten the sanctity of the nuclear and extended families, whereas abuse by the father may result in the loss of the marriage. Other potential major losses are the removal of the child, financial hardships, loss of familial and friendship relationships, and the psychological wellbeing of the nonoffending guardian, among others. The breadth and number of resource losses suggests that abuse and its disclosure are in most situations experienced by the child and family as an extreme stressor. Thus, the abuse often comes without warning and attacks one’s basic values, whereas the disclosure of abuse makes excessive demands on nonoffending guardians who have not been trained to cope with such a problem. One of the effects of this disclosure on the child and nonoffending guardian may be posttraumatic (intrusive) symptoms. These losses represent not only the loss of resources, but also the means for generating other resources. For example, the loss of real income that many families incur also eliminates or reduces the ability of families to use money to provide new resources such as legal or therapeutic support for family members. The loss of relationships with partners, family members, and friends also reduces the nonoffending guardian’s sources upon which to draw for support, further isolating the nonoffending guardian. The loss of psychological wellbeing may also decrease the adaptive coping skills (Hobfoll et al., 1996) of nonoffending guardians. These spiraling losses are then compounded by additional stressors placed by professionals upon nonoffending guardians. The increased responsibility of nonoffending guardians for protecting the child from a known offender, the responsibility for providing transportation for family members to appointments, ongoing pressure from child protective services to be adequately supportive, the system’s decision not to prosecute the offender, and pejorative and hostile attitudes of some professionals are all examples of how professionals can unwittingly escalate these loss spirals. As these loss spirals escalate, nonoffending guardians may become less capable of utilizing problem-focused and active coping mechanisms, instead resorting increasingly on ineffectual coping mechanisms (Hobfoll et al., 1996). This less effective style of coping, which is indicative of the depletion of internal resources, then leads to even more difficulty obtaining resources, thus exacerbating the losses. Further, the community, which ideally is a resource, instead places further demands upon nonoffending guardians. Hobfoll et al. state that when community resources are depleted, “coping tends to take the form of emotion- and cognition-directed behaviors” (p. 343) that are self-defeating. “Consequently, those affected have difficulty emerging from a victim stance into a survivor role” (p. 345). Conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 1991) appears to have important explanatory potential for understanding the reactions of nonoffending guardians to their child’s disclosure of sexual abuse. Overall, this theory suggests that disclosure of abuse can be conceptualized as a devastating (extreme) stressor that results in numerous losses, which in turn decrease the abilities of nonoffending guardians to cope adaptively, which in turn leads to spiraling losses. Conceptualized in this manner, it is understandable that nonoffending guardians are often unable to meet the expectations placed upon them by professionals. Indeed, this conceptualization recognizes that interventions of professionals with nonoffending guardians may have the paradoxical effect of reducing resources while also increasing stressors, thus contributing to the spiraling losses and more ineffectual coping of nonoffending guardians. In response, child protective services workers may invoke the ultimate loss—removal of the child. This model for nonoffending guardians and their responses to disclosure suggests a completely different strategy for working with nonoffending guardians. Instead of the current deficits-oriented model that contributes to resource loss, treatment models instead might need to be strengths-based, bringing needed resources to these nonoffending guardians and their families, reducing their losses, and empowering their use of problem-focused and active coping mechanisms. This treatment strategy may be far more effective at increasing the capability of nonoffending guardians to provide adequate support and protection to the victim than the current punitive model. This next section now turns to considering expectations placed on guardians after disclosure. These expectations are operationalized in the literature as maternal or guardian support.

Tags: sexual abuse