Approximately 3.5% of children and adolescents in the US experience commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). There is no unified approach to assessing the needs of these youth and providing care. Few programs that have published results used objective measures of psychological functioning and those that did often failed to account for the validity, reliability, and cultural appropriateness of measures used. Anchored in research around ACEs, maltreatment, and emotion regulation (ER), the current study examined correlations between these concepts and other markers of distress (e.g., system involvement, self-harm, substance abuse, and self-reported symptoms). Relatedly, these results would then inform development of an appropriate battery of assessments, guide treatment, and enhance program development. 72 youth referred for treatment secondary to CSE provided demographic information and completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences-Questionnaire (ACE-Q) Teen Self- Report, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). As expected, high total DERS scores and high scores on the Strategies subscale were correlated with greater ACE exposure and more distress. Results support the utility of these measures in assessing the clinical presentations of and progress in treatment for youth who have experienced CSE and suggest emotion regulation may be a more desirable treatment target than symptom reduction. Implementation of such a battery would improve delivery of services both on the individual and the larger programmatic level.
Kirsten Byrnes is a licensed board certified clinical and forensic psychologist. She is the Director of Clinical Research and Training at POETIC. In addition to clinical practice, she is an active professor and educator who has conducted research on maltreatment, trafficking, trauma, grooming, and other forensic issues.