This study sought to gather representative data regarding the length of time women
who were raped before age 18 delayed prior to disclosing such rapes, whom they disclosed
to, and variables that predicted disclosure within 1 month.
Data were gathered from 3,220 Wave II respondents from the National Women's Study
(Resnick, Kilpatrick, Dansky, Saunders, & Best, 1993), a nationally representative
telephone survey of women's experiences with trauma and mental health. Of these, 288
retrospectively reported at least one rape prior to their 18th birthday. Details of
rape experiences were analyzed to identify predictors of disclosure within 1 month.
Fully 28% of child rape victims reported that they had never told anyone about their
child rape prior to the research interview; 47% did not disclose for over 5 years
post-rape. Close friends were the most common confidants. Younger age at the time
of rape, family relationship with the perpetrator, and experiencing a series of rapes
were associated with disclosure latencies longer than 1 month; shorter delays were
associated with stranger rapes. Logistic regression revealed that age at rape and
knowing the perpetrator were independently predictive of delayed disclosure.
Delayed disclosure of childhood rape was very common, and long delays were typical.
Few variables were identified that successfully predicted disclosure behavior, but
older age and rape by a stranger were associated with more rapid disclosure. This
suggests that the likelihood of disclosure in a given case is difficult to estimate,
and predictions based on single variables are unwarranted.