Faculty Articles
Scale 8 Elevations on the MMPI-2 among Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Evaluating Posttraumatic Stress, Depression, and Dissociation as Predictors
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Family Violence
ISSN
0885-7482
Publication Date
3-2001
Abstract
This paper investigated elevations on Scale 8 of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) in women survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in order to assess whether symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or dissociation account for such elevations. Participants were 73 women seeking outpatient treatment for CSA after-effects at a university-based community mental health center. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted, including measures of commonly reported symptoms in CSA survivors: depression, posttraumatic stress, and dissociation. Regression analyses revealed that the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) accounted for the most variance in Scale 8 scores (59%), with the BDI as the best predictor. The Impact of Event Scale (IES) did not predict Scale 8 scores significantly above that achieved by the model above. Cross-validation results indicated good generalizability. Results suggest that depression and dissociation contribute most to scores on Scale 8. Implications of these findings for the clinical and empirical use of the MMPI-2 with CSA survivors are discussed.
DOI
10.1023/A:1026576425986
Volume
16
Issue
1
First Page
47
Last Page
57
NSUWorks Citation
Elhai, J. D.,
Gold, S. N.,
Mateus, L. F.,
Astaphan, T. A.
(2001). Scale 8 Elevations on the MMPI-2 among Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Evaluating Posttraumatic Stress, Depression, and Dissociation as Predictors. Journal of Family Violence, 16(1), 47-57.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/474
