Long-term effects of incestuous child abuse in college women: Social adjustment, social cognition, and family characteristics.

Abstract

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study by Harter et al. was to explore the social-cognitive differences between who had experienced intrafamilial childhood sexual abuse and from a non-abused control group. An investigation of how social-cognitive variables related to family structure and social adjustment was also conducted. METHODOLOGY: A quasi-experimental design was utilized. Cross sectional data was obtained from 29 female victims of both intrafamilial and extrafamilial sexual abuse and 56 non-abused control subjects. These subjects were recruited from an overall sample of 1,066 female introductory psychology students at Memphis State University. The overall sample were surveyed between fall 1984 and fall 1985 and asked to volunteer for the study. Subjects with a history of only intrafamilial sexual abuse were not included in the study since the study focused on the role of the family context in which sexual abuse took place. The only control group criterion was absence of child sexual abuse. Age range of the subjects was 17 to 52 years (M=26.64; SD=9.35). The authors reported that the Hollingshead two factor index of socioeconomic status was used to measure subjects socioeconomic levels. (No details were provided). 31% of the subjects were married; 21% of the sample were African American. The authors noted that there were no significant differences between the experimental and control subjects for of the above mentioned variables. Twelve of the abused subjects reported sexual abuse by a father figure which included the biological father, a stepfather, or the mother's boyfriend. Six subjects stated they had experienced oral or coital intercourse, eight reported genital fondling, 21 subjects stated that the abuse had occurred more than once, and six reported that they had been forced to participate. Some subjects reported seductive physical contact including breast fondling and french kissing. Three measuring instruments were utilized. (1) The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-II (FACES-II) (Olson, Russell and Sprenkle [1983]) was used to measure the degree of family members' emotional bonding, and the family's adaptation to change and developmental and situational stress in the subject's family of origin. (2) The Family Perception Grid was developed by the authors as an adaptation of Kelly's (1955) construct Repertory Grid. This instrument was used to measure the way in which the subject viewed herself, significant others, women in general and men in general. Subjects were requested to rate ten figures on ten standardized interpersonal constructs taken from the incest and family literature. Thirteen point Likert scales were used to measure the figure ratings on each bipolar construct. The authors suggested the reader see G.J. Neimeyer and Neimeyer (1981) for a description of this procedure. A matrix of 100 ratings was used to obtain the following measures: (a) self-ideal discrepancy (i.e. the difference between self ratings and ideal-self ratings on the repertory grid); (b) perceived social isolation (i.e. the difference between subject's self-rating and how others have been rated on the repertory grid); (c) sex-role polarization (i.e. differences between men in general ratings and women in general ratings); and (d) social fragmentation (i.e. the degree to which the subject viewed herself as similar or different to others. This was characterized by the standard deviation for the subjects' ratings of other individuals). The authors reported acceptable internal consistency reliability for the construct and figure ratings, except for the self-ideal measure; alpha=.61. The social isolation alpha was .89, sex-role polarization alpha was .72, and social fragmentation alpha was .83. (3) The Social Adjustment Scale (SAS) was used to measure employment performance, school achievement, housewife role performance, extent of social and leisure activities, relationships among extended family members, marital or other intimate relationships and parenting strategies. The subject responses were assessed by the clinician and rated 1 (excellent adjustment) to 7 (very severe maladjustment). The authors reported very high interrater reliability at alpha=.96. The authors defined incestuous abuse as any report of physical contact that the subject interpreted as having been sexual in intent between a subject before she was 18 years of age and a significantly older family member (more than a five year age difference). A questionnaire providing demographic information, the FACES-II instrument and a sex history questionnaire were administered to subjects by a psychology student. Follow up interviews included administration of the repertory grid followed by the SAS. Further sexual history information was obtained in the interview. The authors hypothesized that: (1) abused subjects would perceive themselves as different from significant others (i.e. perceived social isolation), would experience a self-id

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