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Evaluation of Attributional Change in a Relapse Prevention Program for Child Molesters

Relapse prevention is a multimodal, cognitive-behavioural approach to treating, among other types of clients, child molesters. Rather than positing a cure as the outcome of treatment, it emphasises self-management and personal responsibility for avoiding or coping with situations that threaten self-control. The motivation to use these self-control strategies is likely to vary according to beliefs about the causes of their offending behaviour, particularly as a function of the degree to which they are seen as controllable. Fifteen child molesters, classified as preferential or situational type, and familial or nonfamilial, from the Kia Marama unit at Rolleston Prison reported on their causal beliefs concerning their offence-related behaviour at four points in their description of their most typical or recent relapse. This assessment was carried out at four points in the 35-week relapse-prevention based treatment program. All participants made clinically positive changes in their causal ascriptions over treatment. Preferential participants judged the cause of their offending to be less controllable, and more stable at the time of offence, and more global than situational offenders. Compared with non-familial participants, incestuous participants evaluated the cause of their offending to be less stable at the time of their offence and less global across all the assessment points. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of attributional assessment as an interim measure of progress, particularly with respect to motivation to avoid reoffending.