The Australian Institute of Family Studies has published a helpful paper which discusses the topic of children and young people’s disclosures of abuse called Responding to children and young people’s disclosures of abuse by Cathryn Hunter.

It outlines what the AIFS knows through research and practice about how, why, what and when children and young people are likely to disclose. It offers suggestions for parents, family members, friends, professionals or others to help respond to children and young people at the time of disclosure and in the longer term. Most research into children and young people’s disclosures has focused on disclosures of child sexual abuse, however, many of the issues canvassed are also likely to be relevant to disclosures of other types of abuse (i.e., physical, psychological and emotional abuse). The information in this paper is drawn from a range of sources developed through both research and practice.

Download printable version Responding to children and young people’s disclosures of abuse (PDF 455 KB)