The use of objectively scorable House-Tree-Person indicators to establish child abuse

Conducted a study to determine whether the House-Tree-Person Test might be used as a means to identify physically abused children. Protocols of 32 abused children, 32 nonabused but disturbed children, and 45 apparently very well-adjusted children were examined for the presence of 15 objectively scorable items that emerged as good potential discriminators from a pilot study of 60 children. Results of several statistical analyses indicated (a) that items taken individually discriminate strongly between abused and well-adjusted children, but not between abused and nonabused but disturbed children; and (b) that items used collectively, specifically a 6-item test that comprised the 6 most discriminating individual items, discriminate reasonably well between abused children and both of the other two groups. Based on these results, this 6-item test is proposed for use by child care professionals in attempting to identify abused children.