Intimate disclosure of survivors of childhood sexual abuse and nonabused women

Research on the long term effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) indicate that survivors often report a variety of negative sequelae which affect their adult relationships including: fear of men and women, marital and sexual dissatisfaction and victimization by partners. It seems likely that survivors experience less intimacy in their closest adult relationships than nonabused women but there is little direct data to support this assertion. This study compared a group of survivors of CSA (N = 73) with a group of nonabused women (N = 73) on reports of intimate disclosure and perception of mother support in childhood. Groups were matched on age, education and race. Regression analyses determined to what degree intimacy scores could be predicted by (1) a history of sexual abuse and (2) perception of mother care. Analysis of variance revealed that survivors scored significantly lower in their overall intimacy with partners than did nonabused women (p $\u3c$.0007). Survivors, also, scored significantly lower on four of the five subscales measuring intimate disclosure--taste (p $\u3c$.009), attitude (p $\u3c$.003), personality (p $\u3c$.003) and sex (p $\u3c$.005) and significantly higher on the subscale measuring disclosure about work (p $\u3c$.0006). Survivors scored significantly lower on the attitude subscale in relationships with female best friends (p $\u3c$.02). Survivors rated their mothers as significantly less caring (p $\u3c$.000) and more controlling (p $\u3c$.001) than did nonabused women. Mother care scores correlated highly with intimacy with partner (r =.33) and moderately with intimacy with female friend (r =.25). Regression analysis determined that mother care and a history of sexual abuse together accounted for 12.5% of the variance in intimacy scores with partner. Mother care alone accounted for 10.5% of the variance for intimacy with partner and for 6% of the variance for intimacy with female friend. Results present a profile of survivors of CSA who disclose less intimately in their partnered relationships than women who are not abused. This appears to be related to their negative perception of mother care. The importance of these findings to therapeutic work with survivors is discussed