@article{ref1,
title="When home is where the harm is: family betrayal and posttraumatic outcomes in young adulthood",
journal="Journal of aggression, maltreatment and trauma",
year="2018",
author="Delker, Brianna C. and Smith, Carly P. and Rosenthal, Marina N. and Bernstein, Rosemary E. and Freyd, Jennifer J.",
volume="27",
number="7",
pages="720-743",
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. <br><br>FINDINGS suggest that FB is a prevalent phenomenon among young adults abused as children and that it explains unique, clinically significant variance in posttraumatic distress, warranting increased attention from trauma researchers and clinicians.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1092-6771",
doi="10.1080/10926771.2017.1382639",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2017.1382639"
}