Delay in disclosure of childhood rape: results from a national survey.
OBJECTIVE
This study sought to gather representative data regarding the length of time women who were raped before age 18 delayed prior to disclosing such rapes, whom they disclosed to, and variables that predicted disclosure within 1 month.


METHODS
Data were gathered from 3,220 Wave II respondents from the National Women's Study (Resnick, Kilpatrick, Dansky, Saunders, & Best, 1993), a nationally representative telephone survey of women's experiences with trauma and mental health. Of these, 288 retrospectively reported at least one rape prior to their 18th birthday. Details of rape experiences were analyzed to identify predictors of disclosure within 1 month.


RESULTS
Fully 28% of child rape victims reported that they had never told anyone about their child rape prior to the research interview; 47% did not disclose for over 5 years post-rape. Close friends were the most common confidants. Younger age at the time of rape, family relationship with the perpetrator, and experiencing a series of rapes were associated with disclosure latencies longer than 1 month; shorter delays were associated with stranger rapes. Logistic regression revealed that age at rape and knowing the perpetrator were independently predictive of delayed disclosure.


CONCLUSIONS
Delayed disclosure of childhood rape was very common, and long delays were typical. Few variables were identified that successfully predicted disclosure behavior, but older age and rape by a stranger were associated with more rapid disclosure. This suggests that the likelihood of disclosure in a given case is difficult to estimate, and predictions based on single variables are unwarranted.
Smith
D W
DW
Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA. smithdw@musc.edu
Letourneau
E J
EJ
Saunders
B E
BE
Kilpatrick
D G
DG
Resnick
H S
HS
Best
C L
CL
D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology