Childhood abuse and current psychological functioning in a university counseling center population.

Abstract

Eighty-four university counseling center clients (61 women and 23 men) self-reporting childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse (n = 30) or no childhood abuse (n = 54) completed 3 measures of psychological functioning. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that clients reporting abuse were more depressed (with the mean Beck Depression Inventory score in the borderline clinical depression range), had more symptomatology (with the mean Global Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory at about the average level of a psychiatric outpatient population), and scored higher on the Borderline Personality scale of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (with the mean base-rate score near the cutoff score for presence of borderline personality features). Nineteen clients reporting emotional abuse only did not differ on any measure from 11 clients reporting sexual or multiple forms of abuse. This research was supported by the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, Pennsylvania State University.We are grateful to Paula-Ann Pricken for her guidance of this project, to William Holahan and Joyce Illfelder-Kaye for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article, to Bob Intrieri for statistical advice on an earlier version of this article, and to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

Resiliency and adult adaptation in women with and without self‐reported histories of childhood sexual abuse

“…This finding is in line with Fromuth's (1986) assertion that there was no significant difference in depression as measured by the brief form of the BDI in a sample of nonclinical college women with and without selfreported histories of childhood sexual abuse. On the other hand, Braver, Bumberry, Green, and Rawson (1992) found that clients from a university counseling center self-reporting childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse were significantly less well adjusted on two outcome measures which were also used in the present study (the BDI and a brief form of the SCL- Nash et al (1993) also found no significant residual effect for childhood sexual abuse alone (independent of the effects of perceived family 90-R). environment) on psychological functioning in a sample of clinical and nonclinical females.…”

Psychotherapy and memories of childhood sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective

“…First, existing evidence indicates a link between childhood sexual abuse that involves physical contact (e.g. incestuous contact abuse) and adult psychopathology (Beitchman et al, 1992;Braver et al, 1992;Briere, 1988;Cole and Putnam, 1992;Elliott and Briere, 1992;KendallTackett et al 1993;Nash, Hulsey, Sexton, Harralson, and Lambert, 1993a;Stinson and Hendrick, 1992). To our knowledge there is no evidence to suggest that isolated instances of non-contact sexual abuse (e.g.…”

“…For some of the hypothesized sequelae of childhood sexual abuse, there are reliable and standardized objective measures (e.g., Braver et al, 1992;Briere, 1992;Elliott and Briere, 1992;Stinson and Hendrick, 1992). However, to our knowledge nothing comparable has been developed for assessment of rnemories of childhood.…”

“…Indeed, our comments are directed only to recollections of abuse that are the products of extensive use of memory recovery techniques and ancillary practices. People who have always remembered being sexually abused as children, or who spontaneously come to remember previously-forgotten abuse, are on those bases different from clients who require months of guidance and memory recovery techniques prior to their first recollection of abuse (Braver, Bumberry, Green, and Rawson, 1992). For clients presenting with a variety of symptoms who do not initially remember being abused, guidance for the recovery of memories of childhood sexual abuse is explicitly recommended by many practitioners (Bass and Davis, 1988;Blume, 1990;Claridge, 1992;Courtois, 1988Courtois, , 1991Courtois, , 1992Dolan, 1991;Ellenson, 1985Ellenson, , 1986Engel, 1989;Gelinas, 1983;Herman and Schatzow, 1987;Maltz, 1990;Olio, 1989).…”

Two-year follow-up of inpatients with dissociative identity disorder

“…Traumatic experiences, including incest and childhood abuse, have been linked to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) and axis I and II disorders (16,(19)(20)(21)(22)(23), including Schneiderian first-rank symptoms (2-4, 6, 9, 20, 24) and behavioral dysfunction (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44). Dissociative identity disorder, which is understood to be a disturbance resulting from severe forms of childhood abuse (1-3, 5, 45), presents with auditory hallucinations (46)(47)(48)(49), severe depression and suicidality (50), phobic anxiety, somatization, substance abuse (51), and borderline features (4,6,14,(52)…”