Citation

Parker S, Parker H. J. Fam. Violence 1991; 6(2): 183-197.

Affiliation

University of Utah, 84112 Salt Lake City, Utah

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00978718

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A questionnaire administered to a University sample of 245 female victims of sexual child abuse and 750 nonvictims attempted to determine whether abuse is related to poor adult social and psychological adjustment. The instrument consisted of three outcome measures of adjustment, variables directly related to abuse, perceived satisfaction with early family life, and demographic data. Only one of the outcome measures ? the Texas Social Behavior Inventory ? yielded a statistically significant difference between the samples. There was a steady, significant and progressive increase in maladjustment between the nonabused, the nonincestuously abused and the incest victims. When controls were applied for levels of satisfaction with early family life, differences between the abused and nonabused samples disappeared. Those abused as children who reported good treatment by parents exhibited no ill effects as adults on the TSBI.