Problems in Differentiating Sexually From Nonsexually Abused Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients by Self-Reported Anxiety, Depression, Internalization, and Externalization

• NCJ Number: 165024
• Journal: Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1996) Pages: 1079-1086
• Author(s): G Kumar; R A Steer; E Deblinger
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 111 adolescents ages 11-17 who were psychiatrically hospitalized near Philadelphia were studied to determine whether self-reported psychopathology distinguished between adolescents who had been sexually abused from those who had not.

Abstract

Data were collected from the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Achenbach Youth Self-Report and on 14 background and clinical characteristics purported to be associated with sexual abuse. Results revealed that 67 percent of the 60 females and 12 percent of the 51 males reported sexually abusive experiences. None of the measures on the instruments was correlated with sexual abuse in either sex, and a history of physical abuse was the only characteristic that was significantly correlated with sexual abuse for both sexes. Furthermore, none of the scales was correlated with the identity of the sexual abuser, the age of first abuse, the age of last abuse, the number of abuses, the days of abuse, penile insertion, and the reporting of the abuse to the authorities in the cases of the sexually abused females. Tables and 35 references (Author abstract modified)