A perspective study of memory for child sexual abuse: new findings relevant to the repressed/lost memory controversy

Previous research indicates that many adults (nearly 40%) fail to report their own documented child sexual abuse (CSA) when asked about their childhood experiences. These controversial results could reflect lack of consciously accessible recollection, thus bolstering claims that traumatic memories may be repressed. The goals of this study were to (a) compare disclosure rates of documented CSA in the current vs former prospective studies and (b) identify predictors of disclosure. In the present study, 175 individuals (aged 16.7-30.3 years) with court-documented (G. Goodman et al., 1992) CSA histories were interviewed regarding their childhood trauma. Unlike in previous studies, the majority of participants (81%) in our study reported the documented abuse. Older age when the abuse ended, maternal support following disclosure of the abuse, and more severe abuse were associated with an increased likelihood of disclosure. Ethnicity and dissociation also played a role. Failure to report CSA should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence that the abuse is inaccessible to memory, although inaccessibility or forgetting cannot be ruled out in a subset of cases.