Citation

Realmuto GM, Wescoe S. Child Abuse Negl. 1992; 16(5): 719-725.

Affiliation

Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1393730

Abstract

This study was designed to define clinicians' ratings of the comments, behaviors, and affects of abused children and compare them with the same clinicians' decisions about the child's abuse status. The authors concluded that sexually anatomically correct dolls used alone are inadequate in providing enough information for professionals to accurately assess the abuse status of young children. Also it is unclear what observations of the child by mental health professionals are best correlated with their determinations of a child's abuse status. Of concern was the finding that the mental health professionals were more likely to be in agreement with the interviewer's determination of abuse than with the actual status of the child, suggesting undue influence of the interviewer, or, alternatively, both observer and interviewer were responding to unidentified child factors.

Language: en