Containing the Secret of Child Sexual Abuse

TLDR

The study investigates how children disclose experiences of sexual abuse from child and parent perspectives using grounded theory. Researchers conducted individual interviews with 22 children aged 8–18 and 14 parents. The grounded‑theory analysis yielded a disclosure model in which children contain the secret through active withholding, a pressure‑cooker conflict, and intimacy‑based confiding, indicating that multifaceted, safeguarding‑respectful interventions are needed.

Abstract

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 one of containing the secret of child sexual abuse. Three key dynamics were identified: the active withholding of the secret on the part of the child, the experience of a ‘pressure cooker effect’ reflecting a conflict between the wish to tell and the wish to keep the secret, and the confiding itself which often occurs in the context of an intimacy being shared. Children’s experiences of disclosure were multidetermined and suggest the need for multifaceted and multisystemic approaches to prevention and intervention. The need for the secret to be contained, individually and interpersonally in appropriate safeguarding and therapeutic contexts needs to be respected in helping children tell.