Use of self-figure drawing as a screening tool to identify child sexual abuse, eating disorders, and suicidality

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse is a significant risk factor for adverse psychological outcomes such as eating disorders, as well as suicidal attempts and ideation. Detecting these phenomena at an early stage is crucial for improving prognosis. The current study investigated indicators of childhood sexual abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal tendencies as reflected in the self-figure drawings of 130 Slovakian adolescents treated for eating disorders or hospitalized after attempted suicide and a group of healthy controls. Kruskal Wallis test findings indicated that the drawings made by the hospitalized adolescents contained a higher number of indicators associated with childhood sexual abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal tendencies than those from the healthy control group. Similarly, the hospitalized adolescents had higher somatic dissociation scores on the MSDQ than the healthy controls. Logistic regression and decision tree models indicated that child sexual abuse could be predicted by both the drawing indicators and the somatic dissociation scores.

Keywords

• Childhood sexual abuse
• eating disorders
• suicidality
• self-figure drawing
• screening