Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1996

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Social Work

Major Professor

Charles Glisson

Abstract

In this dissertation, sexually abused children in state custody were compared with other children in state custody in order to assess differences in psychosocial functioning. More specifically, this study was designed to evaluate the trauma of sexual abuse over and above the impact of other traumas experienced by children who enter state custody.

The sample was obtained from four geographical areas each comprised of 12 counties in the state of Tennessee. The sample was initially selected as every third child entering custody. During the data collection phase, this was changed to every second and then to every child entering state custody.

The sample was comprised of 600 children placed in custody of the state of Tennessee from 1990-1992. Males comprised 56% of the sample. Females comprised 44% of the sample. Sexually abused children accounted for 23% of the sample (N 153). The sample of sexually abused children was comprised of 104 females and 49 males.

Measures of psychosocial functioning were assessed by the Achenbach Child Behavior checklist (CBCL) and the Achenbach Teacher Report Form (TRF). Measures of psychosocial functioning were approximately obtained when a child entered custody and one year later.

Both multivariate analysis of variance and univariate regression analyses were conducted to identify differences between the two groups. Based on univariate regression analyses involving the Broad Band Scales of the TRA and CBCL, neither the TRF or CBCL Broad Band Internalizing behavior scores differed for the two groups. In addition, the groups did not significantly differ on the somatic complaints and anxiety subscales of the CBCL and TRF. Sexually abused children were rated as displaying less withdrawn behaviors than nonsexually abused children on the CBCL. However, on the TRF, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups on the withdrawn scale. Two interactions, gender by sex abuse and age by sex abuse were not found to affect internalizing behavior, social withdrawal, somatic complaints and anxiety.

Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the variable sex abuse did not significantly moderate the change in scores on the Broad Band Scales of the CBCL and TRF between the time a child entered custody and one year after entering custody.

The results of this study revealed that overall sexually abused children did not significantly differ from nonsexually abused children with respect to their psychosocial functioning. There is no evidence to suggest that the trauma of sexual abuse is harder on a child than other types of trauma experienced by children in state custody. The results are discussed in terms of their clinical and research implications.

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