Childhood Abuse Recollections in a Nonclinical Population: Forgetting and Secrecy

• NCJ Number: 178657
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 23 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 791-802
• Author(s): V. Fish; C. G. Scott
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article investigates the relationship of interrupted memories of childhood abuse with the secrecy of the abuse.

Abstract

Fifteen hundred people were randomly selected from the membership of the American Counseling Association and sent a questionnaire regarding childhood abuse history; 423 usable questionnaires were returned and analyzed. Thirty-two percent of the sample had been abused as children, and 52 percent of those respondents had periods of forgetting some or all of the abuse. Seventy-six percent of those who had been abused had periods when no one but themselves and their abuser knew about the abuse; 47 percent had been asked by their abuser to keep it secret. Secrecy of the abuse appeared to be associated with the experience of forgetting childhood abuse for many individuals. Tables, references