Date of Award

1992

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

James D. Evans

Third Advisor

Judy Fletcher

Abstract

The present study was an investigation of the incestuous family system. Adult survivors of incest were compared with adults currently receiving treatment for stress . It was hypothesized that the extent of reported assumption of maternal roles within the family system would be significantly higher in the abused sample than in the control sample. A secondary hypothesis was that the degree of assumption of maternal roles would be greater for abused subjects reporting an incapacitated mother (due to alcohol/drug abuse) than for abused subjects not reporting an incapacitated mother.

It was found that there was no significant difference between reported assumption of maternal roles for abused subjects and that reported for non-abused subjects. The secondary hypothesis regarding a greater assumption of maternal roles for abused subjects reporting an incapacitated mother, in comparison with abused subjects not reporting an incapacitated mother, was also not supported.

However, mothers of abused subjects were more likely than mothers of non-abused subjects to abuse alcohol or chemicals .

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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