A list of possible, but not all, defense/coping mechanisms used by children who are victims of childhood sexual abuse: 

AVOIDANCE

• child is willing to cooperate and respond to prior inquiries
• but when the topic of touching is approached
• the child may become non-responsive
• try to change the topic
• physically remove him/herself from the Q&A interaction

DENIAL

• the child will provide a partial or blanket denial of facts
• denying that they had ever known the suspect
• when, in fact, there is evidence to the contrary

REACTION-FORMATION

• after providing material that is psychologically threatening
• the child provides other materials that appear fantasy-like
• but may, in fact, serve to reestablish the child’s psychological sense of equilibrium
• and reduce anxiety
• e.g., “After Albert put his pee-pee in my butt, I locked him in the closet (or threw him out the window) and he never came back again.”

MINIMIZATION

• frequently seen in CSA cases
• particularly in early stages of disclosure
• allows the child to minimize the number of incidents
• and/or type of abuse
• e.g., if the child was being abused one time per week for one year, she may say it happened once or twice
• e.g., or if a variety of sexually abusive behaviors took place and in the initial disclosure stages the child reports those sexual behaviors that are least psychologically threatening (e.g., he touched me on the pee-pee, rather than reporting fellatio or sodomy)

DISPLACEMENT

• this coping mechanism allows the child to avoid dealing with the person
• and/or situation that has promoted elevated anxiety in the child
• by reporting that a less threatening person
• and/or situation prompted the cause of anxiety
• e.g., a 5-year old girl who has a sexually transmitted disease reports that it was her infant brother who put his “pee-pee” in her “pee-pee”

RATIONALIZATION

• children use this defense mechanism to come up with an intellectual rationale for the reason they were abused
• e.g., “He thought that I was my mother” or
• “He was checking on me to make sure I was alright.”

New York State Children’s Justice Task Force Forensic Interviewing Best Practices