Personality and Demographic Characteristics of Victims of Sexual Abuse and Self-Mutilation

<p>The purpose of this study was to compare demographic and personality characteristics of a group of inpatients at a psychiatric hospital in New York State who were sexually abused and who were self-mutilators (N = 64) with: a group of sexually abused inpatients (N = 42); a group of self-harming inpatients (N = 25); and a group of selected general psychiatric inpatients (N = 25). All subjects were 18 years of age or older at the time of the study and over 90% of the participants were females.</p><p>It was hypothesized that sexually abused/self-mutilating patients would show greater similarity to the symptoms of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and greater psychiatric symptomatology and maladjustment than the other comparison groups.</p><p>Data were collected from patient demographic and psychiatric records, and from the results of the MMPT-2 and die Personal Assessment of Responses to Abuse (PARA). Principle statistics used in this study included descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, the t Test, the Chi Square Tests, and Pearson product moment correlation.</p><p>Results of the investigation showed general support for the hypotheses that inpatients who were sexually abused and self-mutilating showed more symptomatology associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with higher scores on the F, 4, 6, 8, and 0 scales of the MMPI-2. However, the PK and PS Scales from the MMPI-2, developed to measure PTSD, were not effective group discriminators. Results also showed higher scores on: depression, poor social adjustment, and health concerns than the comparison groups. The sexually abused/self-mutilating group also showed greater sexual trauma than the sexually abused group as measured by the PARA.</p><p> It was concluded that sexually abused/self-mutilators may be a unique subgroup of sexually abused victims. Further research in this area should utilize sexual abuse-specific instruments such as the PARA and also employ multivariate research designs.<p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Year

1993

Author dc:creator

• Rader, Shirley J.

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/622

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-1622