NCJ Number
155557
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 19 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1995) Pages: 607-617
Date Published
1995
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined individual personality characteristics of 65 nonoffending mothers and 94 father/perpetrators, and used canonical correlations and multiple regression analyses to examine patterns of personality traits occurring in 63 pairs in which there was acknowledged child sexual abuse by the fathers.
Abstract
Clinical reports suggest that mothers and fathers in incestuous families exhibit characteristic personality traits. Typically the father/perpetrator is described as powerful and domineering, the mother weak and submissive. At the individual level in this study, a minority of both mothers and offenders differed from norms on traits reflecting social inadequacy, but no personality deviations were prototypical in either group. At the dyadic level, no evidence for a pervasive dominant-submissive pairing was found. Results indicated that father/perpetrator traits tended to be similar to traits of nonoffending mothers. The authors discuss forensic, clinical, and research implications of their findings. Tables, references