Child Maltreatment

 

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Child Maltreatment, Vol. 7, No. 3, 210-225 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1077559502007003004

Explaining the Forgetting and Recovery of Abuse and Trauma Memories: Possible Mechanisms

Michelle A. Epstein

La Rabida Children's Hospital

Bette L. Bottoms

University of Illinois at Chicago

Much attention has been focused on memories of abuse thatare allegedly forgotten or repressed then recovered. By retrospectivelysurveying more than 1,400 college women, the authorsinvestigated (a) the frequency with which temporaryforgetting is reported for child sexual abuse experiences as opposedto other childhood abuse and traumas and (b) exactlyhow victims characterize their forgetting experiences in termsof various competing cognitive mechanisms. Rates of forgettingwere similar among victims who experienced sexualabuse, physical abuse, and multiple types of traumas. Victimsof other types of childhood traumas (e.g., car accidents)reported less forgetting than victims of childhood sexualabuse or multiple types of trauma. Most victims' characterizationsof their forgetting experiences were not indicative ofrepression in the classic Freudian sense but instead suggestedother more common mechanisms, such as directed forgettingand relabeling. The implications of these findings for psychologicaltheory, clinical practice, and law are discussed.

Key Words: repression • recovered memories • child sexual abuse • childhood trauma


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