MMPI correlates of clinical women who report early sexual abuse

Abstract

It was predicted from Freud's seduction theory that women who experienced sexual assault early in life would be identifiable by the MMPI. Twenty-six of 51 women treated at a psychotherapy clinic during a 2-year period reported experiencing sexual abuse as a child (RA); 25 made no such claim (NRA). Age, income level, years of formal education, marital status, and k-corrected scores of the MMPI were submitted to a stepwise multivariate discriminant analysis. It was found that the HY, MF, HS, and PD scales constituted a linear function that correctly classified 72.55% of the subjects (Wilkes Lambda = .670785, df 4, p = .0009). These scales correctly identified 73.1% of the RA and 72.0% of the NRA clients.