Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Disclosure Of Abuse As A Moderating Variable For Internalized Shame In Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Ami Mariko Hood Frost

Theses and Dissertations

Although previous research has established a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and internalized shame in adult survivors, very little research has been done to examine how disclosure affects that correlation. An adult female sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse (N=467) were surveyed to determine a possible moderating effect of disclosure on internalized shame. It was predicted that 1) severity of abuse would be a significant predictor of internalized shame; 2) disclosure would be a significant predictor of internalized shame; and 3) disclosure would moderate the relationship between severity of abuse and internalized shame. Through structural equation modeling using AMOS, …