Ann N. Elliott

Abuse by Siblings and Subsequent Experiences of Violence Within the Dating Relationship

The present study examined the association between abuse by siblings and subsequent experiences of dating violence, comparing this to the relationship between parental abuse and dating violence. For males, dating violence was associated with abuse by older and younger brothers and sisters. For females, dating violence was associated with abuse byolder siblings but not by younger siblings. Dating violence among males was more strongly associated with sibling abuse than with parental abuse. In contrast, for females, dating violence was more strongly associated with abuse by parents. Examination of the type of violence revealed that emotional and physical aggression received from parents and siblings were associated with expressed emotional dating violence among males and with expressed physical dating violence among females. The findings support the hypothesis that abuse by siblings, like abuse by parents, may contribute to a cycle of violence in the lives of persons victimized by sibling abuse.

Polyvictimization, Childhood Victimization, and Psychological Distress in College Women

Two studies examined the relationships among polyvictimization (i.e., high cumulative levels of victimization), six categories of childhood victimization (i.e., property crime, physical assault, peer/sibling, witnessed/indirect, sexual, and child maltreatment), and current psychological symptomatology in college females. Results indicated that exposure to multiple types of childhood victimization is common. Regression analyses revealed that polyvictimization accounted for a significant proportion of variability in scores for psychological distress beyond that accounted for by any victimization category alone. Moreover, the six categories separately accounted for little to no variability beyond that accounted for by polyvictimization. Finally, polyvictimization accounted for a significant proportion of variability in scores for psychological distress, beyond that already accounted for through the simultaneous entry of all six categories of victimization. Findings reiterate the importance for clinicians and researchers to comprehensively assess multiple categories of childhood victimization and polyvictimization and provide preliminary evidence that the total number of lifetime victimizations is at least as important, if not more important, than individual categories of victimization in predicting psychological distress.

The use of Sexually Anatomically Detailed dolls in the assessment of sexual abuse

Abstract The use of sexually anatomically detailed (SAD) dolls in the assessment of child sexual abuse is reviewed, and research which provides evidence relevant to the psychometric properties of SAD dolls with this population is examined. There are a number of unanswered questions concerning the reliability, standardization of administration procedures, adequacy of norms, criterion-oriented validity, incremental validity, external validity, and mechanisms by which this assessment method works, as well as underlying theory predicting differential responding of sexually abused children to SAD dolls. Recommendations for future research are given.

Perceived credibility of children's sexual abuse allegations: effects of gender and sexual attitudes

We investigated whether sex role stereotyping, adversarial sexual beliefs, acceptance of interpersonal violence, sex of the subject, characteristics of the child (age, sex), and characteristics of the alleged perpetrator (stranger, father) affect judgments of the credibility of children’s reports that they have been sexually abused. Two hundred and fifty-five college students in a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial arrangement were given the Burt (1980) scales and asked to read a short vignette in which a child alleged that he/she was sexually abused and the accused male denied the abuse. Although the vast majority of subjects indicated that they believed the child was telling the truth, females rated the child’s credibility significantly higher than males F(l, 253) = 6.29, p = .01226. No other significant relationships were found. The results imply that the vast majority of individuals in a college sample tended to believe children’s sexual abuse allegations and that this credibility assessment is not influenced by characteristics of the child or perpetrator examined in this study. Implications of the truncated range of the dependent variable and of the Burt scales are discussed.

Childhood sexual abuse and multiple dimensions of self-concept

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and self-concept in a nonclinical sample of female college students. Participants with a history of CSA had lower scores than participants without a history of CSA on four domains of self-concept: familial, affect, competence, and physical. History of CSA was not associated with lower self-concept in the social and academic domains. The primary conclusions to be drawn from this study are that CSA may be differentially associated with various domains of self-concept, and thus multidimensional assessment of self-concept can yield useful information that cannot be gathered from global measures which yield a single composite score.