Citation

Shorkey CT. Child Abuse Negl. 1978; 2(1): 69-76.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Current information related to psychological characteristics of child abusers is very limited; it does not provide adequate knowledge for the development of treatment programs with a high degree of predicted effectiveness. Much more research will help to identify psychological measures related to hypothetical characteristics of individuals who abuse children. Preference should be given to personality scales that relate to basic characteristics of abusers identified in descriptive research studies. Tests such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Thematic Apperception Test and Rorschach should be avoided because both the lengthy testing required and scoring reliability problems reduce the likelihood that other researchers would use these measures in replication studies. Current priorities for use of available resources should be shifted from training, technical assistance and program planning to emphasizing basic research that will provide fundamental knowledge related to the individual, social and situation variables involved in the problem of child abuse.