Research Project
3475893
Though it is not yet common practice to question mental patients about their experiences of violence and physical and sexual aggression as children, recent research has begun to show that the impact of these experiences on later mental health may be great. Studies have shown that 63% to 81% of psychiatric inpatients report that they experienced physical and/or sexual abuse as children (Bryer et al., 1987; Chu & Dill, 1989; Jacobson & Richardson, 1987). But the specific consequences of this abuse are not well understood, in part because victims of child abuse typically do not report their experiences. This research project seeks to determine the relationships between reports of childhood experiences of violence and aggression and later psychological symptoms and violent behaviors in psychiatric inpatients. Specifically, we are interested in whether inpatient subjects who report past experiences of physical and sexual abuse show higher levels of symptoms which are hypothesized to result from trauma. These symptoms include hyperarousal (including anxiety, somatization, and post-traumatic stress symptoms), hyperreactivity (including physical aggression toward oneself or others), cognitive avoidance (in the form of dissociation), and depression. We will also measure the relationship between extent of abuse (including the nature and frequency of the abuse) and each of the four symptom groups described above. A third research aim is to determine whether reports about particular aspects of the abuse experience are predictive of the severity of the four symptom groups described above. The abuse factors include the extent of the abuse, the duration of the abuse, the number of abusers, the age of the child at the onset of abuse, and the availability at the time of the abuse of social support. A random sample of 400 adult psychiatric inpatients between the ages of 30 and 45 will be interviewed using a standardized format to obtain detailed information about any physical or sexual abuse experiences before the age of 18. Information will also be obtained about current symptoms in the following categories using standardized measures: anxiety, somatization, and post-traumatic stress symptoms, physical aggression toward others, self-destructiveness, dissociation, and depression. Data analysis will include a comparison of symptoms of abused and non-abused subjects and a multiple regression analysis of the relationship between the extent of abuse and the four symptom groups. We will also examine the relative contributions of the five abuse factors to the prediction of current symptoms in multiple regression analyses. A better understanding of the relationship between abuse and later symptoms may offer a way of recognizing abuse victims by means of their symptoms and may eventually result in more appropriate and effective treatments for the mental health problems of adult survivors of child abuse.
