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Citation |
Delker BC, Smith CP, Rosenthal MN, Bernstein RE, Freyd JJ. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2018; 27(7): 720-743. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
Research on institutional betrayal has found that institutional wrongdoing that fails to prevent or respond supportively to victims of abuse adds to the burden of trauma. In this two-study investigation with young adult university students, we demonstrated parallels between institutional betrayal and ways that families can fail to prevent or respond supportively to child abuse perpetrated by a trusted other, a phenomenon we call family betrayal (FB). In Study 1, psychometric analysis of a new FB questionnaire provided evidence of its internal consistency, unidimensionality, and convergent and discriminant validity. The majority (approximately 72%) of young adults abused in childhood reported a history of FB, with an average of 4.26 FB events (SD = 4.45, range 0-14). Consistent with betrayal trauma theory, Study 2 revealed that FB was 4× more likely to occur in relation to childhood abuse by someone very close to the victim (vs. non-interpersonal victimization), with a particularly strong effect for female participants. FB history predicted significant delay to disclosure of a self-identified worst traumatic event (ηp2 =.017) and significant increases in dissociation (∆R2 =.05) and posttraumatic stress (∆R2 =.07) symptoms in young adulthood. Moreover, with FB in the regression models, only FB--not child abuse nor recent interpersonal victimization--predicted dissociation and clinically significant elevations in posttraumatic stress. Language: en |
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Keywords |
Betrayal trauma; child abuse; dissociation; family; interpersonal violence; posttraumatic stress; trauma disclosure |