Intelligence Is Associated With Voluntary Disclosure in Child Sexual Abuse Victims

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was (1) to determine whether intelligence level is associated with the pattern of the disclosure and (2) to elucidate which, between the verbal and performance intelligence, better reflect the pattern of disclosure in child and adolescent sexual abuse victims.

Methods: Data were collected on 162 participants who visited a public center for sexually abused children and adolescents between January 2013 and December 2014. Demographic information, case characteristics, and disclosure pattern as well as intelligence quotients (IQs) of subjects were gathered. Intelligence was analyzed as level, full scale IQ, and the verbal and performance IQ.

Results: Eighty-one subjects (50.0%) voluntarily disclosed that they have been sexually abused. In regression analysis, intellectual level, age, and the number of perpetrators were associated with disclosure pattern. Full scale IQ was associated with the disclosure pattern (odds ratio = .983, 95% confidence interval = .968-.997, p = .017). When intelligence was divided into verbal and performance IQ, verbal IQ affected the pattern of disclosure (odds ratio = .973, 95% confidence interval = .956-.991, p = .003) with linear correlation (p = .001).

Conclusions: We found that IQ was associated with the disclosure pattern. The intelligence, especially in verbal domain, is linearly correlated with the probability of voluntary disclosure. We suggest that special legal assistance and social concern are required for children and adolescent victims below normal intelligence to make them disclose the sexual abuse.

Keywords: Child sexual abuse; Disclosure; Intellectual disability; Verbal intelligence.