Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse - PubMed

Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse

L M Williams. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1994 Dec.

Erratum in

• J Consult Clin Psychol 1995 Jun;63(3):343

Abstract

One hundred twenty-nine women with previously documented histories of sexual victimization in childhood were interviewed and asked detailed questions about their abuse histories to answer the question "Do people actually forget traumatic events such as child sexual abuse, and if so, how common is such forgetting?" A large proportion of the women (38%) did not recall the abuse that had been reported 17 years earlier. Women who were younger at the time of the abuse and those who were molested by someone they knew were more likely to have no recall of the abuse. The implications for research and practice are discussed. Long periods with no memory of abuse should not be regarded as evidence that the abuse did not occur.

Comment in

• Forgetting sexual trauma: what does it mean when 38% forget?

  Loftus EF, Garry M, Feldman J. Loftus EF, et al. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1994 Dec;62(6):1177-81; discussion 1182-6. doi: 10.1037//0022-006x.62.6.1177. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1994. PMID: 7860815

• How prevalent is resilience following sexual assault?: comment on steenkamp et Al. (2012).

  Bonanno GA. Bonanno GA. J Trauma Stress. 2013 Jun;26(3):392-3. doi: 10.1002/jts.21803. J Trauma Stress. 2013. PMID: 23737298

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