Willingness to Self-Disclose Among Late Adolescent Female Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

• NCJ Number: 195462
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 303-310
• Author(s): Nancy E. Nereo; Barry A. Farber; Veronica J. Hinton
• Date Published: August 2002
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article compares the willingness of sexually abused and non-sexually abused late adolescent women to disclose general and sexual information to strangers and intimates.

Abstract

The authors of this article present a study comparing late adolescent sexually abused college women with non-sexually abused college women. The willingness of each group to self-disclose both general and sexual information to strangers and to their intimate partners is compared and analyzed in this research. Data obtained from 61 questionnaire packets were analyzed and compared using a chi-square statistic. Results of this study indicated that late adolescent women who had been sexually abused in childhood were less likely than non-abused adolescent women to be highly disclosing of general and sexual information to intimate partners. However, there was no difference between the sexually abused and the non-sexually abused women’s willingness to disclose general information to strangers. Findings from this research suggest that survivors of sexual abuse may restrict the disclosing of their personal information as a defense mechanism. Tables, references