RECALL OF ABUSE IN CHILDHOOD AND 3 MEASURES OF DISSOCIATION

Recalled abuse was examined in relation to dissociation in a sample of 312 undergraduates. The Physical Abuse Scale of the Assessing Environments III (Berger & Knutson, 1984) and a newly developed sexual abuse questionnaire measured recalled physical and sexual abuse. The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (Shor & Orne, 1962), Tellegen Absorption Scale (Tellegen, 1982), and Dissociative Experiences Scale (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) measured dissociation. Significant correlations were found between the abuse variables and the dissociation variables, for all the measures except the Harvard Group Scale. Prevalence of sexual abuse, but not physical abuse was found to be significantly higher for females than males.