Vil Du?! incorporation of a serious game in therapy for sexually abused children and adolescents

Joyce J. Endendijk; Henny K. Tichelaar; Menno Deen; Maja Deković

doi:10.1186/s13034-021-00377-3

Vil Du?! incorporation of a serious game in therapy for sexually abused children and adolescents

Joyce J. Endendijk, Henny K. Tichelaar, Menno Deen, Maja Deković

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Background: Talking about experiences of sexual abuse in therapy is difficult for children and adolescents, amongst others due to a lack of vocabulary to describe the situation, avoidance, or feelings of shame, fear, and self-blame. The serious game Vil Du?! was developed to help children open up about sexual experiences. Vil Du?! is a non-verbal communication game, which resembles a dress-up game, in which children can show the therapist what happened to them. The current study examined how and for which therapy components Vil Du?! was used by therapists. Methods: We used a mixed-methods triangulation design. Therapists filled out online surveys about the use of Vil Du?! with 23 clients (M_age = 11.38 years, SD = 3.96; 61 % female). We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 therapists. The data were analyzed in SPSS (quantitative) and Nvivo (qualitative) following the stepwise guidelines of Zhang and Wildemuth. Results: Merged qualitative and quantitative data revealed that therapists acknowledged the usefulness of Vil Du?! mostly for the therapy components trauma narration and processing, and psycho-education about sexuality. In addition, Vil Du?! might be most useful for clients who have difficulty with disclosing sexual abuse experiences, due to limited verbal abilities or feelings of guilt, shame, avoidance, and tension. Conclusions: Recommendations from this study were incorporated in a user manual as a first step toward more systematic and broad implementation of Vil Du?! in the treatment of young sexual abuse victims. A next step is to test whether implementing Vil Du?! in therapy is effective in reducing the negative mental health consequences of sexual abuse for children and adolescents.

Original language	English
Article number	25
Pages (from-to)	1-13
Journal	Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-021-00377-3
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Seksualiteit (18.015) and the K. F. Hein fund.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Keywords

Child sexual abuse
Evaluation
Mixed-methods triangulation design
Psychotherapy
Serious games

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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s13034-021-00377-3Final published version, 1.09 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Vil Du?! incorporation of a serious game in therapy for sexually abused children and adolescents",

abstract = "Background: Talking about experiences of sexual abuse in therapy is difficult for children and adolescents, amongst others due to a lack of vocabulary to describe the situation, avoidance, or feelings of shame, fear, and self-blame. The serious game Vil Du?! was developed to help children open up about sexual experiences. Vil Du?! is a non-verbal communication game, which resembles a dress-up game, in which children can show the therapist what happened to them. The current study examined how and for which therapy components Vil Du?! was used by therapists. Methods: We used a mixed-methods triangulation design. Therapists filled out online surveys about the use of Vil Du?! with 23 clients (Mage = 11.38 years, SD = 3.96; 61 % female). We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 therapists. The data were analyzed in SPSS (quantitative) and Nvivo (qualitative) following the stepwise guidelines of Zhang and Wildemuth. Results: Merged qualitative and quantitative data revealed that therapists acknowledged the usefulness of Vil Du?! mostly for the therapy components trauma narration and processing, and psycho-education about sexuality. In addition, Vil Du?! might be most useful for clients who have difficulty with disclosing sexual abuse experiences, due to limited verbal abilities or feelings of guilt, shame, avoidance, and tension. Conclusions: Recommendations from this study were incorporated in a user manual as a first step toward more systematic and broad implementation of Vil Du?! in the treatment of young sexual abuse victims. A next step is to test whether implementing Vil Du?! in therapy is effective in reducing the negative mental health consequences of sexual abuse for children and adolescents.",

keywords = "Child sexual abuse, Evaluation, Mixed-methods triangulation design, Psychotherapy, Serious games",

author = "Endendijk, {Joyce J.} and Tichelaar, {Henny K.} and Menno Deen and Maja Dekovi{\'c}",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Seksualiteit (18.015) and the K. F. Hein fund. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

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N2 - Background: Talking about experiences of sexual abuse in therapy is difficult for children and adolescents, amongst others due to a lack of vocabulary to describe the situation, avoidance, or feelings of shame, fear, and self-blame. The serious game Vil Du?! was developed to help children open up about sexual experiences. Vil Du?! is a non-verbal communication game, which resembles a dress-up game, in which children can show the therapist what happened to them. The current study examined how and for which therapy components Vil Du?! was used by therapists. Methods: We used a mixed-methods triangulation design. Therapists filled out online surveys about the use of Vil Du?! with 23 clients (Mage = 11.38 years, SD = 3.96; 61 % female). We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 therapists. The data were analyzed in SPSS (quantitative) and Nvivo (qualitative) following the stepwise guidelines of Zhang and Wildemuth. Results: Merged qualitative and quantitative data revealed that therapists acknowledged the usefulness of Vil Du?! mostly for the therapy components trauma narration and processing, and psycho-education about sexuality. In addition, Vil Du?! might be most useful for clients who have difficulty with disclosing sexual abuse experiences, due to limited verbal abilities or feelings of guilt, shame, avoidance, and tension. Conclusions: Recommendations from this study were incorporated in a user manual as a first step toward more systematic and broad implementation of Vil Du?! in the treatment of young sexual abuse victims. A next step is to test whether implementing Vil Du?! in therapy is effective in reducing the negative mental health consequences of sexual abuse for children and adolescents.

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KW - Serious games

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ER -

Vil Du?! incorporation of a serious game in therapy for sexually abused children and adolescents

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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