Incest and comorbidity

This thesis project examined the association between incest and psychopathology. Thirty-one eight to eleven year-old girls who had experienced incest were compared with twenty-four girls of comparable age who had not. Thirty-five twelve to sixteen year-old girls were compared with thirty girls of comparable age who had not. The incest group was matched to the comparison group on age, socio-economic status, and one- or two-parent family. The Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents and the Child Depression Inventory assessed DSM-III-R diagnoses. The younger incest group evidenced more enuretic symptoms, overanxious disorder, and suicidality than their comparison group. The older incest group evidenced more depressive disorders and suicidality than their comparison group. Patterns of comorbidity differed between the younger and older incest groups. Number of types of abuse and age at first abuse were associated with a greater likelihood of certain diagnoses occurring.