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This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1999, Volume 16, Number 1, pages 33-51. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.


Psychological Distress in Former Members of the International Churches of Christ and Noncultic Groups

Peter Malinoski, Ph.D.
Michael D. Langone
Steven Jay Lynn


Abstract


Former members of the International Church of Christ (ICC, N = 15), a reputedly cultic group, former Catholics (N = 19), and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship graduates (IVCF, N = 23) completed a battery of standardized measures of psychological distress. A substantial minority of the former ICC members reached clinically significant levels of psychological distress, depression, dissociation, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms; two-thirds sought psychotherapy after leaving the ICC. Former ICC members scored higher than the noncultic comparison groups on measures of depression, anxiety, dissociation, and symptoms of avoidance and intrusion. These findings support clinical reports of significant levels of psychological symptoms in former cult members.
 

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