Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

A child’s disclosure of sexual victimization is a difficult experience for parents and has been associated with traumatization, disbelief, denial, self-blame, and clinical difficulties. To date, most studies on parents’ responses have been quantitative assessments of the psychological impact of disclosure on parents. A paucity of research has qualitatively explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) and fathers’ experiences have been even further neglected. The current study seeks to characterize parents’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of CSA and to uncover the process-oriented nature of parental responses. This qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analysis, involved interviews with 10 mothers and four fathers whose children (3–18 years) had experienced sexual abuse. Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme—making sense of the abuse in retrospect—captured the process through which parents sought to make sense of their child’s disclosure, focusing on why their child had not disclosed the abuse to them earlier, and how they had noticed something was wrong but misattributed their child’s behavior to other factors. The second theme—negotiating parental identity as protector—reflected how parents’ identity as a protector was challenged, their perception of their world had been forever altered, and they now experienced themselves as hypervigilant and overprotective. The final theme—navigating the services—pertained to parents’ struggle in navigating child protection and police services, and feelings of being isolated and alone. These findings highlight the need for empathy and parental support following child disclosure of sexual victimization.     

Toward a better understanding of the process of disclosure events among people who stutter

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify components of disclosure events among people who stutter, and identify possible relations between these components in order to understand how disclosure events unfold.MethodTwelve adults who stutter participated in semi-structured interviews focused on disclosure of stuttering. Participants were purposefully selected due to their self-reported history of disclosing stuttering. Qualitative content analysis using a grounded theory approach helped to identify relevant themes and subthemes related to the process of disclosure of stuttering.ResultsThe findings describe the complex process of disclosure as being comprised of antecedents (including considerations about when and why to disclose), the disclosure event itself (including the content and form of the disclosure, most and least helpful methods of disclosure, as well as immediate listener reactions), and the perceived outcomes of the disclosure at individual, dyadic, and societal/contextual levels. These components of the process are linked and affect one another, resulting in a feedback loop. Disclosure methods are context-dependent and not mutually exclusive within individuals who stutter.ConclusionProfessionals and advocates gaining a more nuanced understanding of the process of disclosure events can increase their ability to help people who stutter make optimal decisions about disclosure. Making good disclosure decisions can help PWS improve their quality of life and reduce a variety of environmental communicative barriers.     

The impact of pressured information management on boys' and girls' psychological functioning

This study involving 463 adolescents examined the impact of pressured information management with mothers on boys' and girls' subsequent psychological functioning. This novel concept of pressured information management involved both pressured secrecy and disclosure and was defined as the degree to which adolescents feel they have no choice but to engage in these strategies. While pressured secrecy was especially aversive for girls, yielding associations with both depression and anxiety, it was related to stress only in boys. Pressured disclosure was less detrimental, and in fact, had a positive influence on girls' anxiety over time. Alternate models for these effects were considered but not supported by the data. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering teens' reasons for engaging in different information management strategies and suggest adolescents who feel they have no choice but to keep secrets or disclose information to mothers may experience psychological consequences that are gender-specific.     

Oxytocin increases willingness to socially share one's emotions

Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide that is attracting growing attention from researchers interested in human emotional and social behavior. There is indeed increasing evidence that OT has a calming effect and that it facilitates pair‐bonding and social interactions. Some of OT's effects are thought to be direct, but it has been suggested that OT also may have indirect effects, mediated by changes in behavior. One potentially relevant behavioral change is an increased propensity for “emotional sharing” as this behavior, like OT, is known to have both calming and bonding effects. In this study, 60 healthy young adult men were randomly assigned to receive either intranasal placebo (PL; n = 30) or oxytocin (OT; n = 30). Participants were then instructed to retrieve a painful memory. Subsequently, OT and placebo participants’ willingness to disclose to another person event‐related facts (factual sharing) vs. event‐related emotions (emotional sharing) was evaluated. Whereas the two groups were equally willing to disclose event‐related facts, oxytocin was found to specifically increase the willingness to share event‐related emotions. This study provides the first evidence that OT increases people's willingness to share their emotions. Importantly, OT did not make people more talkative (word counts were comparable across the two groups) but instead increased the willingness to share the specific component that is responsible for the calming and bonding effects of social sharing: emotions. Findings suggest that OT may shape the form of social sharing so as to maximize its benefits. This might help explain the calming and bonding effects of OT.     

Disclosure of anxiety in everyday life: Effects of social anxiety

The current study examined the likelihood of disclosing one’s anxiety to others during anxiety-provoking conversations, as reported by individuals high or low in social anxiety. It investigated to whom these disclosures are made, and the content and intended purposes of these disclosures. Undergraduate students and community members low (n = 79) or high (n = 81) in social anxiety completed the Anxiety Disclosure in Everyday Life questionnaire, as well as several other measures as part of another study. Analyses indicated that individuals high in social anxiety were significantly less likely to disclose their anxiety as compared to individuals low in social anxiety. The likelihood of disclosing one’s anxiety varied significantly depending on to whom one was speaking, with intimate partners being disclosed to the most. The content of the disclosures typically involved stating that one is feeling shy or nervous without offering an explanation, or attributing it to one’s personality traits (e.g., shyness), with the intended purpose often being to elicit assistance or reassurance from their conversation partner or to manage the impressions of others.     

Financial capability,money attitudes and socioeconomic status: Risks for experiencing adverse financial events

The risk of experiencing adverse financial events (e.g. bankruptcy) depends on the world economy and on individual differences in financial and psychological variables. Analysing data from 109,472 British survey respondents, this study reports the risks associated with financial capabilities, money attitudes, and socio-economic status for suffering negative financial outcomes. The results show that (1) socio-economic status is associated with financial capabilities but not with money attitudes; (2) money attitudes and financial capabilities are largely independent; (3) money attitudes and financial capabilities each contribute independently to the risk of experiencing adverse financial outcomes, even after adjusting for socio-economic status; and (4) financial capabilities are greater risk factors of adverse financial outcomes than money attitudes; the latter, however, are likely to be promising targets for interventions.     

Adolescent Sexual Assault Disclosure: The Impact of Peers, Families, and Schools

Adolescent sexual assault survivors are more likely to seek support from peers and families than to formal help systems, such as the medical and legal systems. In this study, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with N = 20 adolescent sexual assault survivors aged 14–17 who obtained services from Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Programs to understand the pathways that led them to seek formal help. Our goal was to examine how survivors’ initial disclosures to peers, families, and schools facilitated adolescents’ access to formal help systems. Additionally, we explored how peer, family and school systems interact as mesosystems to effect subsequent disclosures. Results show that the peer and family microsystems were decisive in survivors’ willingness to enter formal systems. Disclosure became more complex when peer, family, and school personnel all became aware of the assault. When these mesosystem interactions occurred with survivors’ consent and produced a helpful response, they were perceived as positive. Alternatively, mesosystem interactions in which survivors had minimal control resulted in greater reluctance to enter formal systems. These conclusions highlight the need educating informal support providers about community services in order to make the disclosure process easier and beneficial for survivors’ recovery and well-being.     

Cognitive Coping vs Emotional Disclosure in the Treatment of Anxious Children: A Pilot-Study

The present pilot-study was a first attempt to examine the effectiveness of the cognitive component of cognitive behaviour therapy for children with anxiety problems. A total of 24 highly anxious children were assigned to 1 of 2 intervention conditions: a Cognitive Coping intervention, which focussed primarily on the cognitive component of cognitive behaviour therapy, or an Emotional Disclosure intervention in which children were invited to write about their fears and anxious experiences. Children completed self-report questionnaires of anxiety disorders symptoms and worry at 3 points in time: (i) 6 weeks before treatment (i.e. baseline), (ii) at pre-treatment, and (iii) at post-treatment. The results showed, firstly, that levels of anxiety disorder symptoms and worry remained relatively stable over a 6-week waiting period and then decreased substantially after the interventions. This suggests that the children did not suffer from momentary anxiety and worry complaints and that treatments generally were effective in reducing these symptoms. Secondly, although within-group comparisons suggested that treatment effects were somewhat larger in the Cognitive Coping condition than in the Emotional Disclosure condition (effects sizes for anxiety disorders symptoms and worry were, respectively, 1.03 and 0.87 for Cognitive Coping vs 0.54 and 0.39 for Emotional Disclosure), statistical tests could not substantiate this impression, probably due to a lack of power as a result of the small numbers of children in both intervention conditions.