| Summary: | The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between
adult interpersonal functioning of women, currently in therapy wherein they were
addressing unresolved issues about their childhood maltreatment, and childhood
experiences referring to a developmental psychopathology framework. One
hundred and twenty women (30 sexual abuse, 30 physical abuse, 30 family
disruption, and 30 control) were individually presented with a series of audiotapes
of three interpersonal situations (conflictual, neutral, dating), and asked to record
their self-report of physiological response, self- and other-perceptions and coping
responses. Physiological indices (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure)
were also recorded, as well as self-report of childhood coping strategies. The data
were examined as to whether abuse survivors in therapy addressing their childhood
experiences have more interpersonal problems than non-clinical control subjects or
than individuals having other types of traumatic backgrounds and whether any
noted interpersonal difficulties are specific to the type of abuse, or general in nature.
Results indicated that abusive experiences are related to greater dysfunction in
regards to self- and other-perceptions than exposure to disruptive/chaotic family
environments alone. However, the differences appear to be variable-specific and
few differences were obtained on physiological and coping variables. Some specific
problems in adult interpersonal functioning were evidenced between the sexual and
physical abuse groups. Specifically, in comparison to the physical abuse survivors,
sexual abuse survivors reported greater use of different, and perhaps less adaptive,
coping strategies in neutral situations. No other dependent variables significantly
differed between the two groups. The results were discussed in terms of theoretical
and empirical issues related to abuse-specific outcomes, the specific methodology employed
in this study, and directions for future research.
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