Abuse-Related Beliefs Questionnaire for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

• NCJ Number: 215873
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 30 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 929-943
• Author(s): Karni Ginzburg; Bruce Arnow; Stacey Hart; William Gardner; Cheryl Koopman; Catherine C. Classen; Janine Giese-Davis; David Spiegel
• Date Published: August 2006
• Length: 15 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study evaluated the structure, reliability, and validity of the Abuse-Related Beliefs Questionnaire (ARBQ), a new measure designed to assess the abuse-related beliefs of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA).

Abstract

The results indicate that the ARBQ has good psychometric properties, demonstrating good overall internal consistency and good consistency in its three subscales: Guilt, Shame, and Resilience. Moreover, the test-retest reliability over a 12-month period was satisfactory. The validity of the ARBQ was established when the ARBQ measures significantly correlated with standard measures of factors hypothesized to be associated with abuse-related beliefs, such as psychological distress, trauma-related symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Other findings revealed that although the three subscales of the ARBQ were highly inter-related, the Shame and Resilience subscales were more significantly associated with trauma symptoms than was the Guilt subscale. Results further showed that one aspect of the abuse--whether it was incestuous--was significantly associated with the degree of negative abuse-related beliefs in adulthood. The evaluation of the ARBQ involved two studies. In the first study, 170 female survivors of CSA who were recruited via newspaper advertisements and local community organizations into a group psychotherapy intervention completed the ARBQ. Spearman correlations were used to assess the direction and significance of the relationships between the factors while Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the ARBQ’s internal consistency. In the second study, 70 females recruited from an internal medicine clinic waiting room who self-identified as CSA survivors completed the ARBQ as well as the Trauma Symptoms Checklist-40 and the Symptom Checklist 90R. Spearman correlations were used to examine the relationships between the ARBQ and the other trauma questionnaires and independent sample t tests were used to assess the construct validity of the ARBQ. Followup studies should assess the validity of the ARBQ with more ethnically diverse samples. Tables, references