Rorschach correlates of sexual offending among adolescent male child sexual abuse survivors

This study investigated the Rorschach responses of adolescent male child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors to see if reliable object relations differences could be found in the protocols of boys who did and did not exhibit sexual offending behaviors. Fifty-one Rorschach protocols of 12 to 17 year old boys were selected to form 3 groups: Non-Offending CSA survivors, Sexually-Offending CSA survivors, and a Comparison Group of non-victimized non-offenders. All 3 groups were approximately matched for age at testing, race, and age at first sexual victimization. The primary hypothesis was that the Rorschachs of sexual-offenders and non-offenders would differ in affective reactivity, thought disorder, object relationships, self-perception, and psychological defenses. Urist Mutuality of Autonomy Scale, Blatt & Ritzler Thought Disorder Continuum, Saunders Atypical Movement score, MOR, R, AFR, EB, M, and WSUMC were used to assess differences. Results confirmed the hypothesis in all but the affective reactivity dimension. The protocols of Sexually-Offending survivors had more dependent and maladaptive object relationships, more severe thought disorder, and more MOR and Atypical Movement responses. Although differences in affective reactivity were not found, comparisons made with Exner\u27s norms indicated that AFR was significantly lower than normal among SO-S and NO-S subjects, and that R was significantly higher than normal in the SO-S group. A linear discriminant function analysis showed significant and accurate differentiation between SO-S and NO-S subjects (correct classification rate = 87%) based primarily on the object relations and thought disorder scales. Because the discriminant function and classification were based on the same sample, this finding is quite tentative. Additional research with larger samples of protocols and a wider array of Rorschach variables are needed and could result in the future discovery of a stable and reliable discriminant function for differentiating sexually offending and non-offending CSA survivors on the basis of Rorschach performance