Aggression in abused children: differential responses to the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study

The Children's Form of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study was used to measure direction of aggression in a sample of 30 physically abused children and a matched control group of 30 nonabused children. The abused children had higher E scores and lower M scores than the nonabused, but only on a subset of the pictures involving child-child interactions. These findings support previous reports in the literature that responses to the test differ according to whether the frustrating agent is an adult or a child. Implications of the results for the use of the test and for abused children are discussed.