Brief Rorschach records with children and adolescents

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Child and adolescent psychology

Background:

• The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test.
• Brief Rorschach records (fewer than 14 responses) are common in child and adolescent populations.
• A hypothesis suggests brief records indicate resistance to testing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the frequency of brief Rorschach records in children and adolescents.
• To test the hypothesis that brief records signify resistance to psychological evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Review of psychological evaluations for 439 inpatient admissions.
• Comparison of subjects with brief Rorschach records (R<14) to a matched control group.
• Analysis of completion rates for other evaluation components, IQ, and self-report measures.

Main Results:

• 16.6% of records reviewed were brief (R<14).
• Subjects with brief records were significantly more likely to not complete other evaluation parts.
• No significant differences were found in IQ, depression, anxiety, or social desirability scores.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the hypothesis that brief Rorschach records represent resistance to testing in children and adolescents.
• Brief records may indicate a reluctance to engage fully in psychological evaluations.
• Further research can explore the implications of this resistance in clinical settings.