This study aimed to 1) replicate existing research linking childhood sexual abuse and later substance use, 2) identify intergenerational parallels between the substance use and sexual victimization experiences of adolescent girls and their mothers, and 3) evaluate early pubertal timing, depressive self-concept, and behavioral under-control as potential pathways to substance use for sexually abused girls. Data were drawn from 150 mother-daughter pairs participating in a longitudinal study of the impact of domestic violence on the lives of women and children. Structural equations modeling revealed that girls' childhood sexual abuse was associated prospectively with their later substance use. This relationship held (retrospectively) for mothers as well. Mothers' risk for sexual abuse and substance use was transmitted to their daughters. Early pubertal timing, depressive self-concept, and behavioral under-control among girls were all predicted by childhood sexual abuse. Only behavioral under-control was, in turn, related to adolescent substance use. Depressive self-concept contributed to behavioral under-control among girls. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that these relationships persist when controls for co-occurring forms of child abuse (physical, exposure to domestic violence) are included. Implications and limitations of the study as well as directions for future research are discussed.

This study investigated how social understandings influence, and often obscure, individual perception. As a replication ofLindblom's (2002) study conducted in Sweden, the aim of this project was to investigate how individuals, studying towards a health care degree such as psychology, handle the occurrence of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) when presented with it. To this end, participants were presented with a picture designed to represent CSA and were asked to interpret the nature of the picture. Following this, participants completed the Child Sexual Abuse Myth Scale (CSAMS) which served to highlight whether the three predominant social stereotypes surrounding CSA, namely, Blame Diffusion, Denial of Abusiveness and Restrictive Stereotypes, were influential in the interpretations participants offered surrounding the picture representing CSA. It was discovered that participants who scored significantly higher on the myth scale for the myths, Denial of Abusiveness and Restrictive Stereotypes, were more likely to misinterpret CSA when presented with it. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between adult interpersonal functioning of women, currently in therapy wherein they were addressing unresolved issues about their childhood maltreatment, and childhood experiences referring to a developmental psychopathology framework. One hundred and twenty women (30 sexual abuse, 30 physical abuse, 30 family disruption, and 30 control) were individually presented with a series of audiotapes of three interpersonal situations (conflictual, neutral, dating), and asked to record their self-report of physiological response, self- and other-perceptions and coping responses. Physiological indices (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) were also recorded, as well as self-report of childhood coping strategies. The data were examined as to whether abuse survivors in therapy addressing their childhood experiences have more interpersonal problems than non-clinical control subjects or than individuals having other types of traumatic backgrounds and whether any noted interpersonal difficulties are specific to the type of abuse, or general in nature. Results indicated that abusive experiences are related to greater dysfunction in regards to self- and other-perceptions than exposure to disruptive/chaotic family environments alone. However, the differences appear to be variable-specific and few differences were obtained on physiological and coping variables. Some specific problems in adult interpersonal functioning were evidenced between the sexual and physical abuse groups. Specifically, in comparison to the physical abuse survivors, sexual abuse survivors reported greater use of different, and perhaps less adaptive, coping strategies in neutral situations. No other dependent variables significantly differed between the two groups. The results were discussed in terms of theoretical and empirical issues related to abuse-specific outcomes, the specific methodology employed in this study, and directions for future research.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Although researchers and clinicians have been aware of male victims of childhood sexual abuse, the literature still lacks sufficient data on the long-term effects for adult males sexually abused during childhood. The current study examined the long-term psychological impacts of childhood sexual abuse for adult males. A standardized measurement, SCL-90-R, was used to assess current psychological functioning such as somatization, obsessivecompulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. A questionnaire consisting of demographic data and childhood experiences was also administered to collect background information. Seventy-four undergraduate male students enrolled in counseling psychology courses were recruited. The abused group consisted of twelve subjects who reported histories of child sexual abuse. The rest of the sample (62) consisted of the nonabused group. Due to the small sample size, the results must be interpreted with extreme caution. Results of multiple t-tests suggested that there is no significant difference between the abused and nonabused group on subscales of the SCL-90-R. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

In this study I examined how sex of the child and the adult and the age of the child influence people's perceptions regarding the abusiveness of adult-child sexual interactions and attributions of blame and responsibility in such incidents. The relationship of gender-role attitudes to perceptions of child sexual abuse was also investigated. Undergraduate students read one of eight vignettes depicting a sexual interaction between a child and an adult in which the sex of the child, the age of the adult, and the sex of the adult were experimentally manipulated. Respondents then answered questions regarding their perceptions of the abusiveness of the incident and attributions of responsibility and blame made to the adult. Results indicated that scenarios depicting a 15-year-old were rated as less abusive and less responsibility was attributed to the adult relative to vignettes involving a 7-year-old. Furthermore, when the vignette depicted a 15-year-old with an adult of the opposite sex, less blame was attributed to the adult. / Department of Psychological Science

This study addresses the problem of the assessment of child molesters. The research questions in this study specifically address the assessment of child molester personality and its relationship to demographic, personal, criminal offense, and treatment progress variables.The purpose of the study was to replicate cluster analyses done with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) in child molester populations using the revised and re-nonmed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), and also, to identify other variables that are associated with particular profile patterns in child molesters.This study examined the archival records of 91 adult male child molesters who were involved in a communitybased sexual abuse treatment program between 1990 and 1993. Information analyzed included the MMPI-2, demographic, personal, and criminal offense data obtained from the child molesters' treatment files, and therapist ratings on the Treatment Progress Rating Scale which is an 11-point scale based on behaviors that the child molester reveals in treatment.The data from the MMPI-2 scales were cluster analyzed, yielding four homogeneous profile subgroups. Three of these four subgroups closely resembled those found in earlier MMPI research with child molesters. Discriminant analysis and chi square analyses were used to examine variables that differentiated the profile groups of child molesters derived in the cluster analysis. Results indicated that the derived groups significantly differed in terms of their reported history of having been sexually abused as a child. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the Scheffe procedure revealed that child molesters with within normal limits MMPI-2 profiles were less likely to report a history of childhood sexual abuse than were child molesters with more elevated profiles. ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze child molester progress in treatment as a function of MMPI-2 profile group. Although the analysis revealed that significant treatment progress was made for the overall sample, the groups did not significantly differ in terms of their treatment progress. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Child sexual abusers have typically been studied as a homogeneous group, comparing them with non-child sexual abusers. The present study was designed to examine the heterogeneity of child sexual abusers on a measure of psychopathology, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the revised version of the MMPI. MMPI-2 profiles of 106 child sexual abusers in treatment for their offenses were cluster analyzed. Three clusters were obtained from the data, suggesting that child sexual abusers are heterogeneous as measured by the MMPI-2. The clusters were F-8-7-6 (n=15), elevated 4 scale (n=29), and within normal limits (n=62). A discriminant function generated by cluster membership was able to accurately classify 98.11% of the sample.The three clusters were replicated in an independent sample (n=50) drawn from the same population. The discriminant function generated on the derivation sample was applied to the validation sample, correctly classifying 80.00% of the subjects.The mean MMPI-2 profiles for the clusters in this study did not replicate mean profiles of clusters derived from similar research using the MMPI, indicating that the two instruments may not be equivalent for use in research using multivariate statistical techniques.The three clusters were tested against amount of self-reported sexual psychopathology as measured by the Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI). Discriminant function analysis indicated that cluster membership did predict degree of sexual psychopathology. In essence, the more elevated the mean MMPI-2 cluster profile, the more sexual psychopathology was reported. The clusters did not differ with regard to progress in treatment (though there were definite trends toward significant group differences in the data), nor did they differ with regard to victim and offender demographics. They did, however, differ with regard to level of intelligence, with the F-8-7-6 group being significantly lower in intelligence than the other two groups.The results of this study indicate that child sexual abusers are heterogeneous with regard to their MMPI-2 profiles, and that this heterogeneity can be used to form homogeneous groups. Additionally, homogeneous groups of child sexual abusers can be expected to differ on the basis of general psychopathology and sexual psychopathology. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services