Was I Abused as a Child Quiz
Questions: 15 · 10 minutes
1. Were painful physical tasks, positions, or deprivation used as punishment?
Discipline did not involve pain, dangerous exertion, or withholding basic bodily needs.
A punishment sometimes caused avoidable physical discomfort that felt excessive.
I was repeatedly made to hold painful positions, perform exhausting tasks, or go without sleep, food, water, or bathroom access.
A punishment caused injury, collapse, serious deprivation, or an immediate threat to my physical safety.
2. What, if anything, happened around sexual pictures, recordings, messages, or requests for secrecy?
Someone requested or shared sexual material in a way that felt inappropriate, but stopped when I declined.
Someone pressured me repeatedly to view, make, send, or keep sexual material secret.
Nothing sexual involving pictures, recordings, messages, or secrecy was requested of me.
Someone coerced, threatened, exploited, or secretly recorded me in connection with sexual material.
3. Were you ever expected to touch another person's body in a sexual way?
An older or more powerful person introduced it as a game or request that left me uncertain or uncomfortable.
No one expected or asked this of me.
Someone pressured me through guilt, persistence, rewards, or misuse of trust.
Someone used force, threats, blackmail, authority, or fear of harm to make me do it.
4. Did anyone build a special or secret relationship with you that gradually became sexualized?
A relationship involved favoritism or secrecy that now leaves me with questions, but I recall no sexual escalation.
Someone cultivated trust, gifts, isolation, or dependency and then repeatedly crossed sexual boundaries.
Someone used that relationship, their power, or threats to force or exploit sexual contact.
I did not experience a relationship of this kind.
5. What happened when you wanted contact with friends, supportive relatives, teachers, or other trusted people?
Age-appropriate limits applied, but I was generally able to maintain supportive relationships.
Access was sometimes restricted in ways that felt controlling, though some supportive contact remained.
Someone repeatedly monitored, sabotaged, or blocked supportive relationships to increase my dependence.
Someone used threats, confinement, violence, or retaliation to stop me from seeking help or disclosing harm.
6. If another child or peer physically hurt you, how did the responsible adults respond?
They took reasonable steps to stop the harm and protect me once they knew.
Their response was inconsistent or delayed, and I remained worried about being hurt again.
They repeatedly dismissed known attacks or required me to remain around the person hurting me.
They encouraged, enabled, joined, or knowingly allowed attacks that caused injury or immediate danger.
7. When you were frightened, hurt, or overwhelmed, what emotional support was available?
Comfort was imperfect, but at least one caregiver usually noticed and responded.
Responses were inconsistent, and I often had to manage distress alone.
My distress was repeatedly ignored, ridiculed, or used against me by people responsible for my care.
Seeking comfort triggered threats, severe punishment, abandonment, or deliberate exposure to further harm.
8. How were mistakes or difficult emotions usually handled by the people who had power over you?
They could be critical, but I was not regularly humiliated or made to feel worthless.
They repeatedly mocked, degraded, scapegoated, or called me cruel names.
They used extreme humiliation or threats of abandonment, serious harm, or public exposure to control me.
They addressed the situation without sustained humiliation, degradation, or threats.
9. Which description best matches any touching of your private areas during childhood?
Someone forced, threatened, injured, or exploited me during sexual touching or penetration.
No such touching occurred, apart from necessary care or healthcare that respected my boundaries.
A touch crossed a boundary, although its meaning or whether it was accidental remains unclear to me.
Someone touched me sexually or continued after I resisted, froze, moved away, or showed discomfort.
10. When an adult or more powerful peer was angry with you, what kind of physical contact occurred?
There was no hitting, shaking, kicking, choking, or other deliberate physical harm.
Physical handling sometimes felt rough or frightening, even though I do not recall an injury.
I was deliberately hit, shoved, shaken, kicked, or otherwise hurt on more than one occasion.
I was choked, attacked with an object, seriously injured, or subjected to force that made me fear for my life.
11. How were your needs for food, hygiene, clothing, supervision, or healthcare met?
My basic needs were generally addressed using the resources available.
Some needs went unmet, and I am uncertain how much limited money, unavailable care, crisis, or caregiver capacity contributed.
Important needs repeatedly went unmet even when responsible adults knew I was suffering or at risk.
Basic care was deliberately withheld as punishment or control, or the deprivation created immediate danger or serious injury.
12. Did anyone make you responsible for protecting their mood, secrets, safety, or adult responsibilities?
I had age-appropriate responsibilities without being made responsible for an adult's stability or dangerous secrets.
I sometimes felt overly responsible for keeping the peace or managing another person's emotions.
I was repeatedly expected to act as caregiver, mediator, confidant, or protector at the expense of my own needs.
Someone used threats, self-harm threats, violence, exploitation, or dangerous secrecy to force me into that role.
13. Before age 18, how did adults or peers with more age, authority, or social power handle sexual topics around you?
They used sexual comments or jokes that sometimes felt confusing or too adult for me.
They kept sexual topics age-appropriate and stopped if I was uncomfortable.
They repeatedly sexualized my body or exposed me to sexual material despite my discomfort.
They used authority, rewards, threats, or secrecy to make me watch sexual material or acts.
14. How were restraint, confinement, or blocked movement used during your childhood?
Someone occasionally blocked my path or held me in a way that felt controlling or frightening.
Reasonable limits were used without painful restraint, dangerous confinement, or threats.
I was repeatedly pinned down, locked in, tied, or prevented from leaving as punishment or control.
Restraint or confinement involved injury, inability to breathe, extreme conditions, threats, or fear of serious harm.
15. Which description best fits threats of physical harm made toward you?
No one threatened to physically harm or kill me.
Someone made vague or angry threats that frightened me, even if I was uncertain whether they would act.
Someone repeatedly threatened beatings or physical harm to control my behavior.
Someone threatened serious injury or death, used a weapon, or made an immediate credible threat against me.