We explored children’s and adults’ ability to disengage from current physiological states when forecasting future desires. In Study 1, 8- to 13-year-olds and adults (N=104) ate pretzels (to induce thirst) and then predicted and explained what they would want tomorrow, pretzels or water. Demonstrating lifespan continuity, approximately 70% of participants, regardless of age, chose water and referenced current thirst as their rationale. Individual differences in working memory and undergraduate GPA were positively related to performance on the pretzel task. In Study 2, we obtained baseline preferences from adults (N=35) and confirmed that, prior to consuming pretzels, people do not anticipate wanting water more than pretzels the next day. Together, these findings indicate that both children and adults are tethered to the present when forecasting their future desires.
There are some memories that time may never erase, but questions arise as to whether genital contact experienced in childhood is one of them. Recent research confirms the possibility of false memories of childhood sexual encounters, including as intensified in vulnerable individuals by debated clinical techniques (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, 1996; Lilienfeld, 2015; Loftus, 1996). Yet clinical and memory theories should also address the matter of enduring memories for genital touch actually experienced in childhood. Currently, there is a pressing need for scientific studies on this topic because in "historic" child sexual abuse cases (where prosecution occurs years after the alleged assault), the accuracy of adults' memory for childhood genital contact is paramount, with concerns about inaccuracies amplified when the adults have trauma histories
Highlights
Resilience during the pandemic is fundamental.
COVID-19 created ecological adversities for child protective services workers.
Importance and work support directly predict professionals’ resilient behavior.
The present pilot study sought to identify predictors of delays in child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure, specifically whether emotional and physical abuse by a parental figure contributes to predicting delays over and above other important victim factors. Alleged CSA victims (N=79), whose parental figures were not the purported sexual abuse perpetrators, were interviewed and their case files reviewed, across two waves of a longitudinal study. Regression analyses indicated that experiencing both emotional and physical abuse by a parental figure was uniquely predictive of longer delays in disclosure of CSA perpetrated by someone other than a parental figure. Victim-CSA perpetrator relationship type and sexual abuse duration also significantly predicted CSA disclosure delay, whereas victim age at the time of the police report, victim gender, and victims' feelings of complicity were not significant unique predictors. Child abuse victims' expectations of lack of parental support may underlie these findings. Parent-child relationships are likely crucial to timely disclosure of CSA, even when a parent is not the CSA perpetrator.
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