The reliability of abuse history reports: A comparison of two inquiry formats

We compared patients' reports about histories of physical or sexual abuse in two independent formats: the standard psychiatric intake interview at admission for inpatient treatment, and a subsequent confidential self-report survey about various forms of early childhood trauma. For 92 consecutiv...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comprehensive psychiatry 1991-03, Vol.32 (2), p.166-169
Main Authors: Dill, Diana L., Chu, James A., Grob, Mollie C., Eisen, Susan V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Abuse - diagnosis
Child Abuse, Sexual - diagnosis
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Female
Humans
Medical History Taking
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders - psychology
Methodology. Experimentation
Middle Aged
Patient Admission
Personality Inventory
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Surveys and Questionnaires
Techniques and methods
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We compared patients' reports about histories of physical or sexual abuse in two independent formats: the standard psychiatric intake interview at admission for inpatient treatment, and a subsequent confidential self-report survey about various forms of early childhood trauma. For 92 consecutively admitted female patients, nearly all reports of abuse histories obtained in the intake interview were consistent with later reports obtained in the survey. However, findings of no abuse history obtained in the intake format were frequently inconsistent with reports obtained in the survey, which were twice as frequent as intake reports. Gender of the intake interviewer was not related to reporting. These data suggest caution in accepting at face value initial denials of abuse histories.
ISSN:0010-440X
1532-8384
DOI:10.1016/0010-440X(91)90009-2