Multivariate Relationship between Situational Victim Characteristics and Disclosing Sexual Abuse in Children: Children as Victims

The detrimental ramifications of childhood sexual assault and abuse can propose a variety of long-term and short-term psychological defects, however, the implications regarding the victim’s characteristics that predispose them to maladaptive psychological behavior post-trauma is imperative to understanding approaches to disclosure. Victim characteristics such as age, abuse prevalence, the relationship to the perpetrator, and cultural roadblocks are all factors that differentiate the severity of psychological defects within the child during disclosure. These factors are explicitly imperative to comprehending the severity of childhood sexual abuse to develop academic framework to assist with these negative predicaments and advise academically built research to advance the field of victimology. This academic article will argue that the multivariate relationship between childhood sexual assault disclosures and situational attributes ultimately results in varying levels of psychological trauma to the victim. Being able to understand the various trends regarding victim behaviors, attitudes, and characteristics surrounding disclosure is exceptionally crucial to implementing change within society that aims to diminish the occurrence of childhood sexual abuse. Consequently, through this analysis of the multivariate relationship, programs and policies throughout Canada can adapt to these findings when dealing with victims of childhood sexual assault in order to best articulate and assist in understanding each unique or similar circumstance and how these characteristics will evidently affect the psychological psyche of the child. The multidimensional approach in researching sexual assault disclosure will present varying degrees of psychological trauma that is based upon socio-economic factors that will evidently present each case with differing nuances and factors