THE SUITABILITY OF THE ROBERTS APPERCEPTION TEST FOR CHILDREN (RATC), THE HOUSE-TREE-PERSON (H-T-P) AND DRAW-A-PERSON (D-A-P) SCALES IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE INDIAN COMMUNITY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Abstract

Abstract Determining whether a child has been sexually abused is both a challenging and daunting task, since errors in this regard could have far-reaching implications. Adding to the dilemma of distinguishing between the abused and non-abused child is the fact that there is no single psychological measuring instrument to aid the forensic evaluator in this task. However, recently there have been attempts to either develop certain measures for specific use in child sexual abuse investigations or to determine the suitability of existing measures in this regard. The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC), the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) test and the Draw-A-Person (D-A-P) test as measures of sexual abuse assessment in South African children. As there is particularly a lack of information in certain subcultures, this study focused on the Indian community. The research participants included 23 sexually abused girls and 17 non-sexually abused girls mo...