In this study, 105 abused and nonabused women were examined for
patterns of adult psychopathology associated with childhood sexual
abuse and to test the extent to which these patterns are independent
of other pathogenic properties of the family environment. Clinical and
nonclinical Ss completed the Family Environment Scale, the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the Rorschach, and the
Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. Greater nonspecific impairment
among abused women may be a consequence, at least in part, of
pathogenic family structure rather than sexual abuse per se. However,
MMPI and Rorschach responses suggest sexual abuse may render victims
especially vulnerable to specific disturbances i involving soma and
self. Abuse was associated with greater use of dissociation, but
covariance analysis revealed this effect to be accounted for by family
pathology. There was no evidence that sexual trauma is associated with
hypnotizability.