Tools to assess psychological trauma & its correlates in child sexual abuse: A review & current needs in Asia

- Additional and unconventional ways need to be explored to stimulate a child sexual abused survivor's production of clinically meaningful thoughts and emotions for both assessment and therapy.
- An integrated format, incorporating child-parent-clinician rating, with multiple variety of items, incorporating verbal and non-verbal tasks is the need of the hour in the Asian continent.
- There is no tool measuring trauma and its correlates developed in Asia. So, development and validation of culture and language specific psychometric instruments for children with a history of sexual abuse in Asia (specifically India) is emphasized.

Absence of visible physical symptoms and limited capacity to express trauma directly, pose significant challenges in assessment of its exact nature of trauma and its correlates in child sexual abuse. There are numerous assessment tools however, deciding upon the appropriateness is often challenging in Asian socio-cultural and health care set up. A review would provide a ready reference to the practioner regarding the exact clinically utility of the tools and also would guide them in the direction of culture specific modifications. Computerized databases namely Medline, PsycINFO, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and Social Sciences Citation Index were used. 52 scales were obtained and analysed in terms of scale characteristics, reference to theory and DSM, and cultural competency. Despite of a wide variety of methods, and newer instruments, many of the traditionally used techniques of child's internal thinking and emotional assessment appear outdated while reviewing the recent theories of CSA related psychological trauma. An integrated format, incroporating child-parent-clinicain rating, with multiple domain speciafic items and verbal and non-verbal tasks, is the current need in the Asian region.