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The use of objectively scorable house‐tree‐person indicators to establish child abuse
Author(s) -
Blain Gerald H.,
Bergner Raymond M.,
Lewis Marjorie L.,
Goldstein Melvin A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(198107)37:3<667::aid-jclp2270370339>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - psychology , test (biology) , child abuse , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , poison control , injury prevention , medicine , medical emergency , paleontology , biology
Abstract Conducted a study to determine whether the House‐Tree‐Person Test might be used as a means to identify physically abused children. Protocols of 32 abused children, 32 nonabused but disturbed children, and 45 apparently very well‐adjusted children were examined for the presence of 15 objectively scorable items that emerged as good potential discriminators from a pilot study of 60 children. Results of several statistical analyses indicated (a) that items taken individually discriminate strongly between abused and well adjusted children, but not between abused and nonabused but disturbed children; and (b) that items used collectively, specifically a 6‐item test that comprised the 6 most discriminating individual items, discriminate reasonably well between abused children and both of the other two groups. Based on these results, this 6‐item test is proposed for use by child care professionals in attempting to identify abused children.