This is a summary of Briere's model of child abuse trauma and its ramifications.

1. John Marsden

2.  Briere, J. (1993) Child Abuse Trauma, London,
Sage

3. Briere grouped the symptoms of child abuse
trauma into seven categories:
 Post-traumatic Stress
 Cognitive Distortions
 Altered Emotionality
 Dissociation
 Impaired Self-reference
 Disturbed Relatedness
 Avoidance

4. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can result from
childhood abuse where there is the threat of death or
intense fear (acute or chronic)
Symptoms:
 Intrusive thoughts and/or nightmares
 Flashbacks
 Exaggerated startle response
 Avoidance
 Anger
 Depression
 Co-morbidity (alcohol/drug dependency)

5.  Abuse that is violent may be experienced as
life threatening
 Chronic abuse may also lead to PTSD
 Both acute and chronic abuse may be
accompanied by intense fear
 Powerlessness and isolation are risk factors
for PTSD.
 Perpetrators seek to isolate and control their
victims.

6.  Guilt
 Low-self-esteem
 Self-blame
 Impaired self-efficacy
 Abuse dichotomy – “bad people suffer, I am
suffering therefore I must be bad”

7.  Tactics of abusers include confusing the
victim, undermining his or her self-
confidence and decision making.
 Tactics also include shifting responsibility
onto the victim
 Control of the victim and transgression of
personal boundaries impacts on victim’s self-
efficacy.
 Abuse may impair school performance and
overall cognitive development

8.  Anxiety
 Depression
 Suicidal thoughts
 Self-harming behaviour

9.  Behaviour of the abuser and the sense/reality
of being trapped results in “learned
helplessness” or depression.
 Fearfulness and hyper-vigilance results from
living in an abusive situation and results in
anxiety disorders.

10.  Disengagement – spacing out
 Detachment - numbing – of feelings
 Observation – watching self rather than
participating
 Amnesia
 Dissociative Identity Disorder

11.  Threatening situations which cannot be
escaped must be endured. In order the
endure what is intolerable individuals learn to
dissociate, those who do not dissociate tend
to develop PTSD.
 In extreme cases the individual “splits” into
different personalities.

12. Sense of self as impaired leading to boundary
issues, identity problems and feelings of
personal emptiness.

13.  One development task is the creation of
“personal integrity” or boundaries between
Self and Other. Perpetrators of abuse blur and
abuse those boundaries. The victim
experiences their personal integrity transient
and dependent on others.
 In borderline personality disorder the
individual struggles to contain his or her
emotions, has a chaotic lifestyle and
unstable relationships.

14.  Inability to differentiate the needs of the self
from the needs of others (co-dependency)
 Attachment issues, such as a fear of intimate
and/or sexual relationships
 Inability to trust
 Inability to enjoy intimacy, including sexual
intimacy

15.  Abuse damages the victim’s trust in others
 Victims may avoid close relationships
 Sexual abusers “condition” sexual behaviour
in victims by establishing a “token economy”
of rewards and threats.
 Sexualised behaviour in childhood may lead
to promiscuity in later life.

16.  Avoidance of conflict
 Avoidance of sex and sexuality
 Avoidance of time and place
 Avoidance of triggers and associations (e.g.
films and TV)
The active maintenance of low self-esteem

17.  Children avoid contact with the abuser and/or
the abuse environment.
 Children avoid triggers and associations that
remind them of the abusive experience
 Avoidance becomes an approach to
managing threatening situations and
negative emotions.

18.  Age at onset of abuse
 Intrusiveness of the abuse
 Relationship with the abuser
 Use of Violence (level of violence)
 Female abuser
 Reaction of others on disclosure

19. Child abuse trauma has the potential to
negatively shape a victim’s personality, his or
her development, relationships and ways of
being in the world .