The Mirror of Doubt: The Relational Process of Disclosing Violence Among Children and Young People

Disclosing experiences of abuse during childhood is a complex process. Previous research has shown that a key barrier to disclosure arises when children and young people do not recognise that what they are experiencing constitutes abuse. It is therefore crucial to deepen our understanding of how children and young people develop awareness of and grasp their experiences as abuse. This paper investigates the relational process of disclosing abuse among children and young people. The analysis highlights the central role of doubt in this process and identifies three analytically distinct but empirically interconnected forms of doubt: intrapersonal doubt, interpersonal doubt, and extrapersonal doubt. These three forms show that doubt not only concerns children’s and young people’s own interpretations of their experiences, but emerges as a relational process shaped through interactions with those in their social environment. The findings offer a novel contribution by conceptualising doubt not as an internal barrier, but as a relational and socially situated interpretive process. The paper is based on timeline interviews with 20 children and young people (aged 12–25 years) who had experienced one or more forms of physical violence, psychological violence, or sexual abuse.