%0 Journal Article %T When home is where the harm is: family betrayal and posttraumatic outcomes in young adulthood %J Journal of aggression, maltreatment and trauma %D 2018 %A Delker, Brianna C. %A Smith, Carly P. %A Rosenthal, Marina N. %A Bernstein, Rosemary E. %A Freyd, Jennifer J. %V 27 %N 7 %P 720-743 %X 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.

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.

Language: en

%G en %I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group %@ 1092-6771 %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2017.1382639