This study reports a grounded theory study of the process of how children tell of their experiences of child sexual abuse from the perspectives of young people and their parents. Individual interviews were conducted with 22 young people aged 8 to 18, and 14 parents. A theoretical model was developed that conceptualises the process of disclosure as…

Accurately identifying victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) can be a challenge for clinicians and clinical researchers. Multiple instruments have been developed and validated to identify IPV in patients presenting to health care practitioners, including the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) and the Partner Violence Screen (PVS). The purpose…

Research suggests that many women experience some form of sexual assault in their lifetime and that women who engage in substance abuse often have a higher incidence of past sexual assault than women in the general population. Given the documented rates of sexual assault among women in recovery from substance use, it is important to explore…

This qualitative study aimed to study the process of disclosure by examining adolescents from the general population who had experienced child sexual abuse (CSA). Twenty-six sexually victimized adolescents (23 girls, 3 boys; age: 15-18 years) participated in a qualitative face-to-face in-depth interview on different aspects of disclosure. A…

The type of causal attributions offered for traumatic life events has been documented as a potential vulnerability factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, few investigations have sought to identify the mechanisms by which such explanations are associated with greater posttraumatic distress. One possible factor that may account…

Trauma theory suggests that to recover from exposure to traumatic events, such as exposure to violence, therapeutic interventions should include opportunities to disclose and to process the fearful and stressful events. Yet little is known about the circumstances that foster disclosure of such information in therapeutic environments by children…

Since sexual assault survivors are most likely to disclose their experiences to a friend; prevention efforts increasingly focus on friends as informal helpers. The current study examined friends' perceptions of the disclosure experience. Undergraduates (N = 1,241) at the University of New Hampshire completed a shortened version of the Ahrens and…

Efforts to understand and support the process of help seeking by victims of intimate partner violence are of considerable urgency if we are to design systems and responses that are capable of actively and appropriately meeting the needs of victims. Using data from the New Zealand Violence Against Women Study, which drew from a representative…

This study of 59 undergraduate men and 85 undergraduate women explored how defining emotional and physical sibling abuse affected the frequency of reported sibling abuse. In addition, the current study examined how the emotional context of the sibling relationship (i.e., rivalry and conflict) moderated the relationship between sibling abuse and…

This study assessed the effects of clinician-assisted emotional disclosure (CAED), an integration of emotion focused therapy (Greenberg, Rice, & Elliott, 1993) and emotional disclosure, in ameliorating distress experienced by survivors of sexual assault. A total of 670 female university students were screened for both histories of sexual…

Worldwide, many women who experience domestic violence keep their experience secret. Few report to official bodies. In a national survey of abuse against women in Pakistan, we examined factors related to disclosure: women who had experienced physical violence telling someone about it. In focus groups, we explored why women do not report domestic…

To increase safety and minimize the risk of interpersonal violence, it is critical that women with disabilities and Deaf women have an opportunity to identify whether or not abuse is happening in their lives. Awareness and knowledge of what constitutes abusive behaviors is an essential first step in addressing interpersonal violence. This article…

Background: Audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI) are increasingly used in health research to improve the accuracy of data on sensitive behaviors. However, evidence is limited on its use among low-income populations in countries like India and for measurement of sensitive issues such as domestic violence. Method: We compared reports of…

Rape affects one in seven women nationwide. Historically, most rape victims do not report rape to law enforcement. Research is needed to identify barriers to reporting and correlates of reporting to guide policy recommendations that address such barriers. We investigated the prevalence of reporting rape among a national sample of women (N = 3,001)…

Researchers have shown that mood and sense of control over one's life are significantly affected by testimony and other forms of disclosure and that learning to control breathing has positive effects on mood and anxiety. This preliminary experiment tests whether African American and European American abused women who give testimony about their…