Exposure as Disclosure: Anonymity Versus Safe Space for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abstract:

Living in silence is a significant characteristic of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse that prevents them from seeking help. Lack of disclosure has been associated with long-term adverse effects. Yet, less than 50% of survivors ever disclose the abuse. This exploratory paper examines the willingness of adult survivors to participate in online discourse about childhood sexual abuse. The metrics of a social media support page, Talking Trees, were studied to determine adult survivors’ willingness to seek help without anonymity. The “Talking Trees” FaceBook page’s ojectives were to build community, remove isolation, and provide information to empower survivors to live openly. In addition to collecting engagement data on individual posts, page insights were collected. During a 24-month period, 889 “Talking Trees” posts came across Facebook members’ pages 2,418,563 times. According to these descriptive statistics, the lack of anonymity in this support group did not deter engagement for 7,109 followers. Nearly 60% of the posts reached more than 1,000 people. The Facebook community engaged with Talking Trees’ posts 146,126 times over the two years. The conclusion is that safely engaging adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse may override the need for anonymity.

Keywords:

Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Disclosure, Online help-seeking, Social media help-seeking, collective identity of adult survivors of childhood trauma

Citation: Rosenna Bakari (2023). Exposure as Disclosure: Anonymity Versus Safe Space for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Horizon J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Res. 5 (2), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.37534/bp.jhssr.2023.v5.n2.id1222.p12