Disclosing Childhood Sexual Assault in Close Relationships: the Meanings and Emotions Women Associate With Their Experiences and Their Lives Now
Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research aimed to explore women’s meanings and emotions associated with\ndisclosing childhood sexual assault within close relationships and their current life experiences. A personal construct model of the disclosure process was examined, which proposed that disclosing childhood sexual assault will impact on women’s meaning making, their willingness to tell, and their close relationships.\nParticipants were twenty eight women between 20 and 60 years of age drawn\nfrom those accessing counselling or support groups. Twenty three women completed a questionnaire, provided narratives about their current life experiences and an important\ndisclosure experience, and the Social Support Questionnaire (Sarason, Levine, Basham and Sarason, 1983). Eight women from a Survivors Support Group participated in a discussion about their disclosure experiences.\nMeanings women associated with their disclosure and current life experiences\nwere identified in individual narratives and the Support Group transcript. The emotional content of women’s narratives was examined using a qualitative approach and the content analysis scales of Anxiety, Hostility Directed Outward, Hostility Directed Inward, Ambivalent Hostility, Depression, Hope and Human Relations (Gottschalk and Bechtel, 2002), Positive Affect and Sociality (Viney, Caputi and Webster, 2000).\nWomen’s recollections of their disclosure experiences and current life experiences contained meanings about self, others, self in relation to others and childhood sexual assault (supporting Hypothesis 1), evidence of invalidation, validation\nand reconstruction (supporting Hypothesis 2), and evidence of both negative and\npositive emotions (anger, hostility, anxiety, fear, mixed emotions, guilt, shame, sadness/depression, love, pleasant emotions, and relief) supporting Hypothesis 3. Hypothesis 4 proposing a relationship between the meanings women gave to their experiences and their emotions was also supported. Hypothesis 5 proposing a positive\ncorrelation between women’s views of their current social networks and the emotions they experience was supported for positive emotions (these were positively associated with satisfying close relationships) but not for negative emotions.\nThe implications of the research findings for both clinical practice and the wider\ncommunity were explored. The application of the model to the broader community of people sexually assaulted as children was examined. Criticisms were made about the research, together with suggestions for future research.
Author: Hilary Maitland
Institution: University of Wollongong
Language: English
Topic: Child Abuse and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1590986372