NCJ Number
168491
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 21 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 941-952
Date Published
1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Fifty-five female health care professionals who had experienced emotional abuse in childhood were compared with 55 nonabused women with respect to anxiety, depression, and dissociation in adulthood.
Abstract
The participants were all employed at a midwestern urban hospital. They completed the Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, a measure constructed specifically for this abuse history, to determine whether or not they had experienced psychological maltreatment as children. They also completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). Data were examined using a significant discriminant function analysis with the STAI, BDI, and DES as predictor variables. Results revealed that this analytical technique correctly classified 74.5 percent of the psychologically abused participants and 89.1 percent of the nonabused group; the overall hit rate was 81.8 percent. The abused and nonabused groups differed significantly on all three instruments. Findings indicated that women who reported histories of childhood psychological abuse experienced significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety and more frequent dissociative experiences than did the nonabused women. Tables and 25 references (Author abstract modified)