This slideshow showcases information regarding child maltreatment in abnormal psychology textbooks.

1. Sam J. Wilgus
Bethany L. Brand, PhD

2. Prevalence of child maltreatment
among 17,337 adults:
•11% reported emotional abuse
•28% reported physical abuse
•20% reported sexual abuse
Eradication of ACEs would result in
sharp decreases in the onset of
many psychiatric illnesses.
Kaiser Permanente and the Center for Disease
Control’s Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACE) Study (Anda et al., 2006)

3. Linked to the development of psychological disorders (Dallam, 2001;
Erickson & Egeland, 2011; Miller-Perrin & Perrin, 2013; Putnam, 2003; Silverman, Reinher &
Giaconia et al., 1996; Foote, Smolin, Kaplan, Legatt, & Lipschitz, 2006; Sar, Akyuz, & Dogan,
2007; Saxe et al., 1993; Waller & Ross, 1997; and more)
• PTSD
• Conduct Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Depression
• Panic Disorder
• Dissociative Disorders
• ADHD
• Substance Abuse Disorders
• Personality Disorders
• Eating Disorders
• Somatoform Disorders
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Pedophilia
Child Maltreatment (CM)

4. • Research of psychology textbooks suggests
information about CM is often absent,
inaccurate, or inconsistent.
• In 24 introductory psychology textbooks, 17% did
not even mention CM
• How is child sexual abuse presented?
• Information varied from book to book
• 20/24 of textbooks mentioned child sexual abuse
• 75% of textbooks made claims about false
memories that were unsupported by research
Letourneau and Lewis (1999)

5. • In 15 introductory psychology textbooks:
• Only one mentioned psychological abuse
• One mentioned neglect
• Zero mentioned all four types of CM (i.e., neglect and
psychological, physical, and sexual abuse)
• Content that addressed CM consistently lacked
appropriate emphasis and clear definitions.
Kissee, Isaacson, & Miller-Perrin (2014)

6. • Major aspect of education
• Allow experts to reach a large population
• Impact on students
• Impact on professors
CollegeTextbooks

7. Present Study:
Abnormal PsychologyTextbooks
Causes
Symptoms
Treatments
Psychological
Disorders
The present study investigated the quantity, quality and accuracy of information
about CM that is presented in abnormal psychology textbooks.

8. 10 Abnormal Psychology textbooks
Amazon.com
Chegg.com
Kring, Johnson, Davison, and Neale Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley
Whitbourne and Halgin Oltmanns and Emery
Beidel, Bulik, and Stanley Rosenberg and Kosslyn
Comer Barlow and Durand
Nevid, Rathus and Greene
Lyons and Martin
Books

9. Index Search
Kring, Johnson, Davison, Neale
Abuse, Recovered memories of, 228
Acute Stress Disorder, 75, 215-216
Child abuse
And BPD, 477-478
And DID, 232
And dissociative disorders, 227-228
And eating disorders, 352
And paraphilic disorder, 384
And so on…
Locating Relevant Information

10. The content, the connections, the research to back it:
• Number of times a form of child maltreatment is
explicitly mentioned
• Number of psychological disorders linked child
maltreatment
• Number of citations for research related to child
maltreatment
We observed patterns across textbooks and analyzed
how the material was presented.
Measuring Each Book

11. To assess the scoring method’s reliability between
different raters, two separate raters scored the ten
textbooks.
Intraclass correlations indicated strong agreement:
• 0.84 for the number of disorders linked to CM
• 0.94 for the number of CM references
• 0.87 for times CM was discussed
• p’s were all < .01
Inter-rater Reliability Analysis

15. The three indices are related to book size:
• Number of mentions (r = 0.364)
• Number of psychological disorders (r = 0.264)
• Number of citations (r = 0.706*)
(Score/number of pages)
• Each book receives three ratio scores: CM mentions, link
mentions, and CM citations ratios.
• Higher ratio reflects more information on child
maltreatment.
*significant at the p < 0.05 level
Correcting for Book Size

17. • Each textbook has 3 ratio scores.
• Significant differences were found between
each book’s set of scores (F(1,10) = 66.57, p <
0.01).
• No significant differences found between DSM-
V and DSM-IV-TR textbook scores (t(8) = .515, p
= 0.62).
Data Analyses

18. • Qualitative analyses examined the significance, depth of
detail, and organizational structure of information.
• Content analysis: What might undergraduate students
enrolled in an abnormal psychology course need to know about
CM and its link to psychopathology?
• Specific section devoted to CM
• Definitions of CM
• Psychological consequenes associated with CM
• Potential signs of indicators of CM
• Characteristics of perpetrators and victims
• The influence of technology
• Information about controversial CM topics
Data Analyses

19. • What is presented about child maltreatment varies book to book.
• Information is inconsistent and lacking.
• Whitbourne and Halgin (2013) earned the lowest scores consistently, but no book
held top scores in every measure.
• 338 different research citations linked to child maltreatment across all books.The
most any one book contained was 97.
• Abnormal Psychology (15th edition) by Butcher et al. (2013).
• 32 individual psychological disorders linked to child maltreatment across all books.
The most any one book contained was 13.
• Abnormal Psychology in a ChangingWorld (9th edition) by Nevid et al. (2014).
• 80% of textbooks do not have a specific section dedicated to CM.
Conclusions

20. • The majority of textbooks emphasize just one specific
form of child maltreatment: child sexual abuse.
• Neglect is listed in only four of the indices (Butcher et al., 2013;
Nevid et al., 2014; Oltmanns & Emery, 2012;Whitbourne & Halgin,
2014)
• Physical abuse in three (Lyons & Martin, 2014; Nevid et al., 2014;
Oltmanns & Emery, 2012)
• Psychological abuse in one (Comer, 2014)
• All of the textbooks address at least some of the
psychological consequences associated with CM.
Conclusions

21. Textbooks present controversial and sometimes misleading
information.
• Studies document that recovered memories of CSA are no more or
less likely accurate than continuously remembered memories
(Dalenberg, 1996; Dalenberg et al., 2012; Dalenberg et al., 2014)
• The “false memory” researchers conceded in Lynn et al. (2014)
that they are “open to the possibility that some recovered
memories are genuine” (p. 23)
• Some texts present information consistent with authors who argue
that recovered memories are false without presenting evidence for
the other side (Beidel et al., 2014; Butcher et al., 2013)
Conclusions

22. Biased and inaccurate information is
presented in some texts.
• Four texts cite a highly controversial review about the
pervasiveness of child sexual abuse (Rind, Tromovitch,
& Bauserman, 1998)
• The Rind study has been widely challenged but none of
the books mention this (Dalenberg et al., 2012)
Conclusions

23. Books tend to present sensationalistic discussions about DID,
rather than the research.
• Some books say DID treatment is ineffective or damaging (Butcher et
al., 2014; Beidel et al., 2014), even though no published data have
supported this notion (Brand et al., 2014)
• Only one book (Nevid et al, 2014) cites a meta-analysis that found DID
patients show improvements during treatment (Brand, Classen,
McNary, & Zaveri, 2009)
• Nevid et al. (2014) also cites a prospective international study that
found that treatment for DID is associated with
decreased symptoms, suicide attempts, self-harm, and
hospitalizations (Brand et al., 2013)
Conclusions

24. Implications
• Can a minimum standard be
set?
• Professors can use the findings
to help determine what
textbook to use.
• Students can be better
informed about the impact of
child maltreatment
• Increase in general awareness.

25. Limitations
• The current study does not examine every
published abnormal psychology text
Future Research
• More textbooks
• More reviewers
• Qualitative review of textbooks
• Contacting the publishers
Limitations and Future Research

26. Ackerman, P. T., Newton, J. E., McPherson, W. B., Jones, J. G., & Dykman, R. A. (1998). Prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder
and other psychiatric diagnoses in three groups of abused children (sexual, physical, and both). Child Abuse & Neglect 22[8], 759-774.
Brand, B. L., Myrick, A. C., Loewenstein, R. J., Classen, C. C., Lanius, R., McNary, S. W., & ... Putnam, F. W. (2012). A survey of
practices and recommended treatment interventions among expert therapists treating patients with dissociative identity disord er and
dissociative disorder not otherwise specified. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, 4(5), 490-500.
doi:10.1037/a0026487
Brand, B. L., & Lowenstein, R. J. (2010). Dissociative Disorders: An Overview of Assessment, Phenomenology, and Treatment. Psychiatric
Times. October, 2010. 62-69.
Felitti, V.J., Anda, R.F., Nordernberg, D., et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse to many of the leading causes of death in
adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal Preventative Medicine. 14(4). 245-258.
Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence- from domestic abuse to political terror. New York, NY: Basic Books.
van der Kolk, B. A., Roth, S., Pelcovitz, D., Sunday, S., & Spinazzola, J. ( 2005). Disorders of extreme stress: The empirical foundation
of a complex adaptation to trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18, 389– 399. doi: 10.1002/jts.20047
van der Kolk, B. A. 2012. Developmental Trauma Disorder: Towards a rational diagnosis for children with complex trauma histories.
Kolk.
Letourneau, E. J., & Lewis, T. C. (1999). The portrayal of child sexual assault in introductory psychology textbooks. Teachin g Of
Psychology, 26(4), 253-258. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP260402
Myrick, A. C., Brand, B. L., McNary, S. W., Classen, C. C., Lanius, R., Loewenstein, R. J., & ... Putnam, F. W. (2012). An exploration of
young adults' progress in treatment for dissociative disorder. Journal Of Trauma & Dissociation, 13(5), 582-595.
doi:10.1080/15299732.2012.694841
Rucklidge, J. J. (2006). Psychosocial functioning of adolescents with and without paediatric bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective
Disorders, 91, 181–188.
Rucklidge, J. J., Brown, D. L., Crawford, S., & Kaplan, B. J. (2006). Retrospective reports of childhood trauma in adults with ADHD.
Journal of Attention Disorders, 9, 631–641.
References

27. Oltmanns, T., & Emery, R. (2012). Abnormal psychology. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Butcher, J., Mineka, S., & Hooley, J. (2013). Abnormal psychology. (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Nevid, J., Rathus, S., & Greene, B. (2014). Abnormal psychology in a changing world. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Barlow, D., & Durand, M. (2012). Abnormal psychology: An intergrative approach. (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Beidel, D., Bulik, C., & Stanley, M. (2014). Abnormal psychology. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Comer, R. (2014). Abnormal psychology. (8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Lyons, C., & Barclay, M. (2014). Abnormal psychology: Clinical and scientific perspectives. (5th ed.). Redding, CA: BVT Publishing, LLC.
Whitbourne, S., & Halgin, R. (2014). Abnormal psychology: Clinical perspectives on psychological disorders. (7th ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Rosenberg, R., & Stephen, K. (2011). Abnormal psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Kring, A., Johnson, S., Davison, G., & Neale, J. (2014). Abnormal psychology. (12th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Dalenberg, C. J., Brand, B. L., Gleaves, D. H., Dorahy, M. J., Loewenstein, R. J., Cardeña, E., … & Spiegel, D. (2012). Evaluation of the
evidence for the trauma and fantasy models of dissociation. Psychological bulletin, 138(3), 550.
Dalenberg, C. J. (1996). Accuracy, timing and circumstances of disclosure in therapy of recovered and continuous memories of abuse.
J. Psychiatry & L.,24, 229.
Brand, B. L., Classen, C. C., McNary, S. W., & Zaveri, P. (2009). A review of dissociative disorders treatment studies. The Journal of
nervous and mental disease, 197(9), 646-654.
Kissee, J. L., Isaacson, L. J., & Miller-Perrin, C. (2014). An Analysis of Child Maltreatment Content in Introductory Psychology
Textbooks. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 23(3), 215-228.
References