Children's maltreatment disclosures, recantations, and supporting evidence of maltreatment

Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Southern California

Abstract

Description

Research about children's maltreatment disclosures has largely focused on sexual abuse, which accounts for 9% of maltreatment cases. Reaching a level of understanding about the correlates to child maltreatment disclosure necessitates an inquiry beyond childhood sexual abuse. In light of recent evidence that ecological factors play a role in the disclosure process for sexual abuse, the current study explored the potential for ecological variables to impact children's disclosures for other types of maltreatment cases. Constructivist grounded theory guided original research that included an exploratory content analysis of court documents from Los Angeles County. A purposive sample of 55 cases involving 4-9-year-old children was drawn from a larger study that measured children's willingness to disclose adult transgressions. Methods of analysis included exploratory description of children's disclosures, a geographic information science (GIS) inquiry, and illustrative case studies that examined in detail the court records for three children alongside their levels of endorsement of disclosure.

Keywords

Abuse-sexual, Child maltreatment, Disclosure -- recantation, Research -- statistics

Citation

DOI