Commentary of

The Mediating Role of Secrecy in the Development of

Psychopathology in Sexual Abused Children
&
Examining Antisocial Behavioral Antecedents of Juvenile
Sexual Offenders and Juvenile Non-sexual Offenders.

Zhao Y.

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The topics of two articles are The Mediating Role of Secrecy in the Development of
Psychopathology in Sexual Abused Children and Examining Antisocial Behavioral
Antecedents of Juvenile Sexual Offenders and Juvenile Non-sexual Offenders. The first
research wants to find out if the sexual abused children hiding secrecy from others
develop psychopathology afterwards. And the later aims to look for the relationship
between antisocial behavior and juvenile sexual offenders. Both of the articles are relating
sex issues and give more insight about the issue. They triggered me to read more relevant
articles in the future and see many other factors leading to sexual offenders and what
would bring to sexual abused victims. They are really interesting and I want to dig them
out.
According to the literature review, many scholars state that after being sexually abused,
the children would suffer many severe long-term and short-term negative mental health
outcomes, like being depressed, anxious and aggressive in behaviors (Cutahar et al., 2010;
Maniglio, 2009; Trickett, Noll, & Putnam, 2011). The researchers also show child sexual
abuse victims have higher tendency to conceal their feelings and thoughts from others
and are not going to tell others the fact that they are being sexually abused for a long
period of time (Hershkowitz, Lanes, & Lamb, 2007; London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman,
2005). Many researchers have done tons of studies on it and it has been a consensus in
the academic circles. On the contrary, there is little research on how secrecy affects the
victims and what kind of consequences could bring to them. And this research is going to
test child sexual abuse victims mother in the relationship between the victims secrecy
towards them and psychopathology.
The result is that the sexual abused childrens mothers perceived that their children keep
more secrecy than non-sexually abused childrens mother and its showing that the
victims have higher levels of psychopathological problems (Delft, Finkenauer, Schipper,
Lamers-Winkelman, & Visser, 2015). In addition, the research also found out that the
victims mothers perceived that their children did not completely share their traumatic
thoughts and feelings with them (Delft, Finkenauer, Schipper, Lamers-Winkelman, &
Visser, 2015). This may increase the risk of being psychopathic as the long period of
suppression of negative thoughts and feelings would harm the mental health.
The second article is about to discuss the relationship between antisocial behavior and
juvenile sex offending. Moreover, Loeber and Hay (1994) proposed that there is a model
in three successive paths to explain the development of antisocial behavior, including
authority conflict (like stubbornness, defiance), covert (like deceit, dishonesty, telling
lies), and overt (like aggression and violence) (McCuish, Lussier, & Corrado, 2015). These
pathways are not mutually exclusive, one person could have multiple pathways at the
same time (Loeber & Hay, 1994).
Through the research, they found that the covert and overt groups were having the high
probability to experience physical aggression and sexual abuse (McCuish, Lussier, &
Corrado, 2015). And the study was consistent to the previous findings that the offenders
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behaviors were not restricted to one particular type of behavior. In addition, the study
discovered that the frequent offenders would follow the covert and overt pathways.
Especially for the sexual offenders, they would not only follow the covert and overt
pathways, but also would act in a continuing and gradually rising pattern in antisocial
behaviors (Butler & Seto, 2002; Elliott, 1994). However, this study also has a limitation
that the researchers stated that the development of juvenile sexual offending is a complex
issue. It is not possible that a particular type of covert or over pathway could explain it
(Becker, 1998; Butler & Seto, 2002; Elliott, 1994; Lussier et al., 2012).
The two articles are both very interesting. In the secrecy research, it mentioned the
vicious cycle of secrecy. After being sexually abused, it is the human nature for the
children to suppress the thoughts and avoid thinking about anything related to the
tragedy. Nevertheless, it is a reflex for a human being to think about what he/she is trying
to avoid or hide. Thus suppression of thought could increase intrusive thoughts for the
victims and put more effort to suppress these thoughts. A vicious cycle created, in the end,
if the children could not handle the situation, stress and psychopathology could result.
Under this circumstance, sharing feelings with others are extremely important. They need
a leakage to express hard feeling. Unfortunately, some of them choose to keep secrets,
which may worsen their mental health states. Therefore, for the victims, they need to tell
others. Many researches indicate that no matter for adults or children, disclosure to
others about their tragic encounters would have positive results for them (Bradley &
Follingstad, 2001; Deblinger, Mannarino, Cohen,Runyon, & Steer, 2011; GrahamBermann,Kulkarni,& Kanukollu, 2011; Ruf et al., 2010; Van der Oord, Lucassen, Van
Emmerik, & Emmelkamp, 2010). On the other hand, the research on antisocial behavior
outlines a point that there is no single pathway of antisocial behavior development could
account for the antisocial behavior. Moreover, the further assessments should have more
detailed categorizations of the pathway for antisocial behaviors. We need to investigate
more reasons to explain one thing and to explore more precise categories to know about
one issue detailedly.
What impresses me most is the selection of target population. Different from phone
interview or interviewing on the street, the researchers would contact a specific agency to
conduct a survey. It reminds me that for my final year project, the target population
could also change from the university students to a specific population, like the elderly,
the poor, the mothers, etc. in an organization.

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Work cited
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Adolescents Who Have Committed Sexual Offences. Child Maltreatment, 3, 317-329.
Bradley, R. G., & Follingstad, D. R. (2001). Utilizing Disclosure in the Treatment of the
Sequelae of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Theoretical and Empirical Review. Clinical
Psychology Review, 21(1), 132.
Butler, S. M., & Seto, M. C. (2002). Distinguishing Two Types of Adolescent Sex Offenders.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 83-90.
Cutajar, M. C., Mullen, P. E., Ogloff, J. R. P., Thomas, S. D., Wells, D. L., & Spataro, J.
(2010). Psychopathology in a Large Cohort of Sexually Abused Children Followed Up
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