Master's Theses

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

Victims of sexual abuse often suffer from short term or long term effects which inhibit normal emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and behavioral functioning. The development of a reliable instrument which could be used to identify sexual abuse victims could be of valuable use to the clinician in identifying their clients underlying problems. Roland examined the use of the MMPI to identify individuals who suffer from early sexual abuse. Comparison of sexually abused and non-sexually abused adult subject profiles produced a linear function which correctly classified 72.55% of the subjects (Roland et al., 1985). Further work by Roland on the MMPI has identified a set of test items (SESAW) which constitute a separate scale to identify sexually abused adult women. This study investigated the use of the MMPI as a tool to identify 116 sexually abused or non-abused adolescent females ages 13 to 18. The results showed that a discriminant analysis of 80 significant MMPI items correctly classified 93% of the grouped cases (92.6% reporting abuse and 93.5% reporting no abuse). A discriminant analysis of the SESAW items correctly classified 81.55% of the grouped cases (85% reporting abuse and 77.8% reporting no abuse).

Keywords

Psychology

Advisor

Dr. Robert Markley

Date of Award

Spring 1989

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

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