Disclosing your abuse may not end it:

In the real world, disclosing abuse can have serious negative consequences including the breakup of the family---and, once having told, there is significant pressure to recant. Sorenson and Snow² reported that 80 percent of children in a large series eventually took back all or part of their original disclosure.

The reaction of the person to whom disclosure is made has consistently been shown to have an impact on the psychological sequellae of childhood sexual abuse. Our research demonstrated that the nature of the response to disclosure predicted the severity of symptoms experienced 25 years after the cessation of abuse (Roester³). We demonstrated that for adults who disclosed sexual abuse in childhood, primarily to close family members, those who experienced a negative response had worse scores on measures of general trauma symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and dissociation.

Alternatively, Fromuth⁴ found that parental support ameliorated the negative effects of child sexual abuse in a nonclinical sample of college women. In children, support from the non-offending parent was associated with better outcome in two separate studies (Friedrich et al.⁵ Everson et al.⁶).

It should be noted that when a child discloses sexual abuse to a family member, a supportive response is not necessarily forthcoming. In one study, 24 percent of mothers were judged to be unsupportive of their sexually victimized children (Everson, et al 1989). And Sauzier⁷ found that 19 percent of adolescents regretted having disclosed the abuse at 18 month follow-up.

Factors that affect the response of close family members to the disclosure include:

• Age of the disclosing person
• Who is told
• Intent of the disclosure
• Context in which disclosure occurs.

The significant people told of the abuse can be supporting or rejecting, may believe or disbelieve, may take the disclosure seriously or pretend not to hear.