NCJ Number
142296
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: (March-April 1993) Pages: 271-279
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study used child subjects, from Adelaide, Australia, who were divided into three groups: The sexually abused group consisting of 26 children assessed as having been sexually abused, the clinic group consisting of 37 children referred for behavioral or academic problems not related to suspected sexual abuse, and the community group consisting of 39 children who attended a public school during the study period.
Abstract
Using the Louisville Behavior Checklist and a test of human figure drawings, the researchers assessed whether statistically significant differences existed between the groups and whether reliable identification of sexual abuse victims could be made using scores from these two instruments. Discriminant function analysis showed significant differences between the groups on variables including internalized behavior problems, externalized behavior problems, and emotional indicators. However, use of these scores to classify individual children as sexually abused or nonabused produced substantial misclassifications, particularly between the sexually abused and clinic-referred groups. While, as a group, the sexually abused children scored higher on the Louisville subscales and drew more emotional indicators in their human figure drawings, the variability of individual scores within each group allowed some sexually abused subjects to score lower than children in either the clinic or community groups. 3 tables and 27 references