NCJ Number
149339
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 18 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1994) Pages: 419- 423
Date Published
1994
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The personality characteristics of 65 mothers of child sexual abuse victims and 25 of their sexually abused daughters were compared with 65 control mothers and 32 control daughters.
Abstract
The abused and control daughters were aged 8-10. All subjects were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Leisure Interest Checklist (LIC). The EPQ is a brief, self-report device that provides a good "map" of personality traits that can be reliably derived. It provides three independent measures of temperament: anxiousness under duress, sociability, and impulsivity. The LIC contains 135 items that span most socially acceptable recreations. Respondents express their degree of interest in various recreational activities with the use of a four-point Likert scale. Frequency comparisons between the victim group and controls for the questionnaire items were made with chi-square and Fisher Exact tests. Results showed both study groups to be significantly less impulsive than their control counterparts. Victim mothers also presented themselves as being more constricted than control mothers. By and large, however, the victim groups and the control showed far more similarities than differences. To determine whether personality traits facilitate abusive relationships, subjects must be followed longitudinally. Otherwise, differences in personality traits may be the result of an abusive relationship and not a cause. These findings do not support the contention in much of the literature that a specific personality composition of passivity and inadequacy in mothers of child sexual abuse victims places their children at greater risk for abuse than children of "normal mothers." 2 tables and 15 references