Assessing and Treating Interpersonal Violence in the Wake of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased parental stress and rates of intimate partner violence, and contributed to heightened risk for vulnerable children to experience child maltreatment or to develop problematic sexual behaviors (PSB). Without effective treatment, these traumas can contribute to long lasting negative physical and mental health outcomes, but circumstances of the pandemic have created challenges to identifying these children. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially critical for clinicians to assess the full range of interpersonal trauma exposures and responses that youth may experience, and to provide impacted youth with trauma-focused evidence-based treatment. This webinar will describe assessment strategies and evidence-based interventions for interpersonal violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic across development, with a focus on 1) how to ask children about their trauma experiences and responses; 2) the use of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for young children and their parents/caregivers who experience interpersonal trauma in the wake of COVID-19; 3) features of problematic sexual behaviors (PSB) in children 12 years and younger, the critical role of parents in addressing these, and two evidence-based treatments for this population; and 4) the use of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for youth who experience interpersonal trauma including PSB and their non-offending parents/caregivers.