"I Cannot Tell Anyone:" There are Many Reasons

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Trauma Studies
• Clinical Research

Background:

• A significant portion of adults (26%) delay disclosing childhood abuse until prompted by research.
• Understanding factors hindering trauma disclosure is crucial for therapeutic interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify variables associated with difficulties in disclosing past traumatic events.
• To examine group differences between those able and unable to disclose trauma.
• To determine predictors of trauma disclosure difficulties in a non-clinical population.

Main Methods:

• A study of 693 non-clinical participants assessed prevalence and group differences in trauma disclosure.
• Key variables included dissociative processing, internalized shame, coping strategies, and cumulative trauma exposure.
• Logistic regression analyses were employed to identify predictors of disclosure difficulties.

Main Results:

• Individuals with difficulty disclosing trauma reported higher cumulative trauma, pathological dissociative processing, emotion-oriented coping, and shame.
• Interpersonal traumatic events predicted inability to disclose trauma (90% classification accuracy).
• Shame and cumulative traumatic exposure were significant predictors of disclosure difficulties (90% classification accuracy).

Conclusions:

• Difficulty in discussing traumatic events correlates with interpersonal trauma, shame, and cumulative exposure.
• Clinicians should address shame, dissociative processing, and emotion-focused coping in patients with trauma disclosure challenges.