In San Antonio it is estimated that 40 percent of females and 16 percent of males will be sexually abused before turning 18 years old. Research conducted by Nancy Kellogg, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and medical director at the Alamo Children's Advocacy Center, has shown most children delay disclosing such abuse an average of 2.3 years.
Some individuals never disclose or wait years to tell of their experience.
There is a lot of fear of getting in trouble, of not being believed, of what will happen to their mother, their family, their siblings and even what will happen to them. Most victims also feel guilty or responsible for what has happened to them. When children do disclose abuse they usually tell another child first. The abused child figures other children will believe them and so they practice before disclosing to an adult. Surprisingly, when children do tell an adult it is not their mother.