Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of child abuse on cognitive dimensions of personality including intelligence, accuracy and memory.

Method: Subjects consisted of 100 female high school students in the city of Isfahan in the academic year of 2003-2004, who were selected using random multi-stage sampling method. Based on the scores ob-tained through the Child Abuse Scale, the subjects were divided into two groups: abused or normal. Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Memory Scale, and Bonardel Accuracy Test were used for gathering data. Data were then analyzed using MANOVA and correlation coeffi- cient.

Results: Mean accuracy, IQ, and memory scores of the abused and normal groups were 63.66 versus 70.44, 107.12 versus 108.89, and 86.82 versus 86.16 respectively.

Conclusion: Abuse causes a decrease in the memory mean score of female adolescents, but has no considerable effect on their accuracy and IQ.