MMPI measures of psychological disturbance in adolescent and adult victims of father-daughter incest.
The MMPI was used to study psychological disturbance in two different age groups of victims of father-daughter incest. The profiles of a group of 27 adolescent victims and 31 adult victims were compared and analyzed. All subjects had a history of being molested when they were children by their fathers or stepfathers, and all were in psychotherapy at the time of testing. In order to establish clear age differentiation between the two groups, no adolescent was over the age of 19 and no subject in the adult group was under age 30 when they were tested. The results indicated that the overall profiles were more elevated for the adult victims than for the adolescent victims. Both groups were elevated (T greater than 70) on Scale 8 (Sc), and the adults also were elevated on Scale 4 (PD), while the adolescents were high (T = 69) on Scale 9 (MA). The results are discussed in terms of core personality disturbance shared by the two groups and the probable influence of time or age on how the psychopathology is expressed.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007179:Incest; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008950:MMPI; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010551:Personality; D011599:Psychopathology; D012918:Social Alienation