Assessing the Object Relations of Sexually Abused Females

• Main Author: Freedenfeld, Robert N.
• Other Authors: Ornduff, Sidney R.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 1992
• Subjects: sexual assault; relationship paradigms; Object Relations and Social Cognitions TAT; sexually abused females; Sexually abused children > Psychology.; Object relations (Psychoanalysis)
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500657/

The TAT stories of 38 sexually abused females between the ages of 5 and 18 years and a clinical group of 26 females with no recorded history of abuse were analyzed using the Object Relations and Social Cognitions TAT Scoring System (Westen et al., 1985). Subjects in the sexual abuse group showed significantly lower mean scores on a scale measuring affect-tone of relationship paradigms and on a scale measuring complexity of representations of people. In addition, pathological responses were given significantly more often by sexual abuse victims on the complexity of representations of people scale. Thus, sexually abused children showed more primitive and simple characterizations of people and more negative, punitive affect in their representations. Moreover, these results were independent of age, race, and intelligence. Group differences are discussed in terms of object relations development.