Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Events Of Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure, Mia R. Urmston

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide issue leading to problems shortly following abuse and well into the victims’ lives. Specific barriers have been found to delay one’s disclosure of CSA. Common reasons for delayed CSA disclosure among recently abused children and adult survivors of CSA are the fear of not being believed and not having a trusted adult with whom they can disclose their CSA experience. Feelings of shame brought on by comments from the perpetrator were also common among those who delayed CSA disclosure. Action is needed to transition CSA disclosure from being an event into more of …