An International Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial of Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Sexual Urges Toward Children.
Objective: Test whether Prevent It 2.0, a 9-week, anonymous internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program, reduces the severity of sexual urges and behaviors toward children to prevent acts of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Method: In a randomized 1:1 waitlist-controlled trial...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology Vol. 94; no. 7; pp. 425 - 437 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
American Psychological Association
Jul2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=196064814&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 196064814 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0022006X JCC jtl: Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology issn: 0022006X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 94 iid: 7 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 196064814 10.1037/ccp0001019 ppf: 425 ppct: 12 formats: tig: atl: An International Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial of Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Sexual Urges Toward Children. aug: au: McMahan, Allison Joleby, Malin Andersson, Gerhard Letourneau, Elizabeth J. Seto, Michael C. Luke, Timothy J. Rahm, Christoffer affil: Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, and Stockholm Health Care Services Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University Forensic Research Unit, University of Ottawa Institute for Mental Health Research Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg su: Child sexual abuse Cognitive therapy Behavior therapy Sexual attraction Health policy Randomized controlled trials sug: subj: Child sexual abuse Cognitive therapy Behavior therapy Sexual attraction Health policy Randomized controlled trials Administration of Public Health Programs keyword: child sexual abuse internet-based intervention pedophilic disorder preventive psychiatry randomized controlled trial child sexual abuse internet-based intervention pedophilic disorder preventive psychiatry randomized controlled trial ab: Objective: Test whether Prevent It 2.0, a 9-week, anonymous internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program, reduces the severity of sexual urges and behaviors toward children to prevent acts of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Method: In a randomized 1:1 waitlist-controlled trial with crossover at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, N = 203 adults (≥18 years; 92.1% men, 0.5% women, 7.4% other; age 18–70, 66.6% aged 21–40; 49.8% Europe, 38.9% North America) were allocated to iCBT (n = 100) or waitlist (n = 103). The preregistered primary outcome was severity of sexual urges toward children (adapted Sexual Symptoms Assessment Scale). Secondary outcomes included weekly time spent observing children for sexual purposes, including use of child sexual abuse material, and severity of accessed material. The study was preregistered on https://ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT05663047; Karolinska Institutet, 2022) and the Open Science Framework (DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Y2DC4; Rahm et al., 2022). Results: iCBT participants reported a significantly greater reduction in sexual urges toward children (−6.41 scale points, 95% confidence interval, CI [−8.26, −4.56]; d = −1.01, 95% CI [−1.30, −0.72]), as well as a significant decrease in time spent observing children for sexual purposes (including use of child sexual abuse material; −1.87 hr weekly, 95% CI [−2.91, −0.82], d = −0.517, 95% CI [−0.806, −0.228]) after 9 weeks compared to the attention-controlled waitlist. Conclusions: Prevent It 2.0 demonstrated efficacy in reducing sexual urges and offending related behaviors toward children, producing clinically significant reductions over 9 weeks, in an anonymous online sample. What is the public health significance of this article?: Prevent It 2.0 demonstrated that a brief, anonymous online cognitive behavioral therapy program can reduce sexual urges and behaviors toward children within 9 weeks. These findings support internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy as an effective component of a broader public health strategy to prevent child sexual abuse, complementing legal, clinical, and community-based prevention efforts. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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