Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1998, page 55
Brief Report:
Perceived Psychological Abuse and the Cincinnati Church of Christ
Donna L. Adams, R.N., M.Ed.
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Cincinnati Church of Christ (CCC) is an affiliate of the International Churches of Christ
(formerly known as the “Boston Movement”), one of the fastest growing and most
controversial new religious groups in the United States (Giambalvo &Rosedale, 1996
Yeakley, 1988). The purpose of this study was to compare former members of the CCC
with graduates of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IV), a mainstream evangelical campus
ministry, on the degree to which they perceived their group environments to be
psychologically abusive, as measured by the Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA –
Chambers, Langone, Dole, &Grice, 1994).
Fifty-four former CCC members and 49 IV graduates, all recruited by word-of-mouth were
sent the GPA. Twenty-eight scales were returned by CCC subjects and 27 by IV subjects.
None of the former CCC subjects were exit counseled or deprogrammed, and none received
assistance from cult-educational organizations. T-tests were calculated to test for
differences between the groups on the four subscales of the GPA: Compliance, Exploitation,
Mind Control, and Anxious Dependency. Table 1 shows the Means and Standard Deviations
for both groups on the four GPA subscales.
All t-tests were significant at the .05 level, indicating that the two groups differed on each
subscale.
The primary limitation of this study is that subjects were not selected randomly from the
populations of interest, a deficiency common to this and many other areas of study. Also,
the GPA measures retrospective perceptions of psychological abuse. The degree to which
these perceptions reflect the abusiveness or nonabusiveness of the group environments in
question cannot be answered adequately until additional research is conducted.
Table 1
CCC and IV Subjects’ Means and Standard
Deviations on GPA Subscales
Subscale/Group Mean Standard
Deviation
Compliance
CCC 4.71 .34
IV 1.82 .67
Exploitation
CCC 2.89 .67
IV 1.48 .37
Mind Control
CCC 4.49 .51
IV 1.51 .45
Anxious
Dependency
CCC 3.30 .66
IV 1.21 .30
Brief Report:
Perceived Psychological Abuse and the Cincinnati Church of Christ
Donna L. Adams, R.N., M.Ed.
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Cincinnati Church of Christ (CCC) is an affiliate of the International Churches of Christ
(formerly known as the “Boston Movement”), one of the fastest growing and most
controversial new religious groups in the United States (Giambalvo &Rosedale, 1996
Yeakley, 1988). The purpose of this study was to compare former members of the CCC
with graduates of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IV), a mainstream evangelical campus
ministry, on the degree to which they perceived their group environments to be
psychologically abusive, as measured by the Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA –
Chambers, Langone, Dole, &Grice, 1994).
Fifty-four former CCC members and 49 IV graduates, all recruited by word-of-mouth were
sent the GPA. Twenty-eight scales were returned by CCC subjects and 27 by IV subjects.
None of the former CCC subjects were exit counseled or deprogrammed, and none received
assistance from cult-educational organizations. T-tests were calculated to test for
differences between the groups on the four subscales of the GPA: Compliance, Exploitation,
Mind Control, and Anxious Dependency. Table 1 shows the Means and Standard Deviations
for both groups on the four GPA subscales.
All t-tests were significant at the .05 level, indicating that the two groups differed on each
subscale.
The primary limitation of this study is that subjects were not selected randomly from the
populations of interest, a deficiency common to this and many other areas of study. Also,
the GPA measures retrospective perceptions of psychological abuse. The degree to which
these perceptions reflect the abusiveness or nonabusiveness of the group environments in
question cannot be answered adequately until additional research is conducted.
Table 1
CCC and IV Subjects’ Means and Standard
Deviations on GPA Subscales
Subscale/Group Mean Standard
Deviation
Compliance
CCC 4.71 .34
IV 1.82 .67
Exploitation
CCC 2.89 .67
IV 1.48 .37
Mind Control
CCC 4.49 .51
IV 1.51 .45
Anxious
Dependency
CCC 3.30 .66
IV 1.21 .30
