NCJ Number
138470
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: (July/August 1992) Pages: 553-565
Date Published
1992
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This preliminary study compared the level of ego development, as measured by Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test (SCT), of 30 women with histories of childhood sexual victimization and 30 women with no history of abuse.
Abstract
Loevinger (1966, 1976) refers to the process of developing feelings about oneself, striving toward mastery, integration, and making sense of experience as the development of the ego, the "master trait" of personality. It is an individual's level of ego development that determines his/her frame of reference and how she/he construes the world, especially the interpersonal world. The SCT, the instrument used in this study, is a projective assessment that measures seven stages and three transitional phases of ego development. The SCT was selected to measure ego development in this preliminary study because of Loevinger's definition of ego. Study results do not confirm the hypothesized difference in ego development between sexually abused and nonabused women. The majority of women in both groups were rated at the Conscientious/Conformist (I-3/4) level of ego development, the modal level for students during the first two years of college and for adults in general. Contrary to expectations, subjects in the sexually abused group were more often rated at the Conscientious (I-4) level or higher than were nonabused subject, but not significantly so. Factors that may contribute to these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are suggested. 3 tables and 53 references