Multimodal Assessment of Dissociation in Adolescents: Inpatients and Juvenile Sex Offenders

Abstract

Two samples of adolescents were studied to assess the validity of several measures of dissociation. The first sample included 70 males from a residential treatment program for adolescent sex offenders (ASO). The second were 47 psychiatric inpatients. The measures included the DSM-IV field trial questionnaire for Dissociative Disorders of Childhood, Child Dissociative Checklist, Adolescent-Dissociative Experiences Schedule, Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children, and the Dissociation Research scale. Ten of the 70 adolescent sex offender subjects (14.3%) were identified as meeting DSM-IV criteria for a Dissociation-spectrum disorder diagnosis and two (4.2%) of the psychiatric patients. Between-groups analyses with the ASO revealed significant differences on the Child Dissociative Checklist and the Dissociation Research Scale. Cumulative trauma did not differ significantly between the dissociative and nondissociative groups of ASO, but physical abuse was related to a diagnosis of dissociation in this sample. The dissociation measures were highly intercorrelated for both groups, and suggest that they measure a similar construct.

Keywords

adolescent sex offenders dissociation multimodal screening trauma.

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