Abuse Characteristics, Multiple Victimisation and Resilience among Young Adult Males with Histories of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Although researchers now concede that one in six men experiences childhood sexual abuse (CSA), this population remains understudied in both the empirical and clinical literature. Little is known about the characteristics of males' CSA experiences (e.g. duration, child‐perpetrator relationship) and about resilient functioning. This study described young adult males' abuse experiences during childhood and their current adaptive functioning. Participants were recruited from across North America through websites geared specifically for males with CSA histories. The sample included 46 males aged 17–25 years who anonymously completed an online questionnaire. Findings indicated that males tended to experience severe CSA, including early age of onset, invasive sexual acts and the use of perpetrator force. Males also reported the co‐occurrence of other forms of childhood maltreatment and adversity, including parental conflict, neglect, physical abuse and emotional maltreatment. Finally, males reported lower rates of resilience on standardised measures, compared with adult community samples in North America. However, scores were consistent with clinical age‐based norms for adolescents with trauma histories. This study contributes to the growing awareness of male CSA, multiple victimisation and its diverse outcomes. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice are considered. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages The experiences of CSA among males were found to be severe and to occur alongside other forms of victimisation and adversity. Males with CSA histories experienced difficulties in their adaptation, in terms of coping with stress and functioning across work, school and interpersonal spheres. It is important that practitioners consider the serious impact of male CSA across multiple areas of functioning and inquire about other forms of victimisation when working with this population.

Resilience Following Child Maltreatment: Definitional Considerations and Developmental Variations

“…Whereas the previous two approaches utilized measures that were not specifically developed to assess resilience (e.g., psychopathology measures and developmental measures), the studies using this approach utilized measures and scales that were created to purposely assess the construct of resilience. Most commonly, one of the three versions (2, 10, and 25 items) of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale was utilized (e.g., Berkowski & MacDonald, 2014; Carli et al, 2011; Dale et al, 2015; Ding et al, 2017; Howell & Miller-Graff, 2014; Irwin et al, 2016; Ressel, Lyons, & Romano, 2018; Sexton, Hamilton, McGinnis, Rosenblum, & Muzik, 2015; Wingo et al, 2010). Five studies used general resilience scales and measures, including the Brief Resilience Coping Scale (Beutel et al, 2017), the Resilience Quotient Test (Choi et al, 2013), and the Resilience Scale-25 (Schulz et al, 2014; Tlapek et al, 2017).…”

Child Sexual Abuse: Ethics and Evidence

“…Adopting a multifactorial approach to the impact of CSA that includes gender among a number of contributing factors provides a more comprehensive and accurate picture than a gendered lens on its own. In this issue, Madelaine Ressel and colleagues () present findings from a survey of 46 men recruited from online communities of male abuse survivors, focused on their history of abuse and subsequent function. The paper emphasises the seriousness of the victimisation history reported by the men and their lower levels of resilience in comparison to community samples.…”

Untold Stories: Male Child Sexual Abusers’ Accounts of Telling and Not Telling about Sexual Abuse Experienced in Childhood

“…Eighteen of those 40 men are focused on here as they provided some detail as to whether they had disclosed that abuse in childhood or adulthood, the responses they had received, and also why they had not disclosed. Their narratives shed some much-needed light on the nature of sexual abuse experienced by males, its onset and duration, sexual re-victimization, relationships with perpetrators, the diverse nature of disclosure, the extent to which victims disclose and when, the responses received, and why they do not tell.Little is known of these aspects of male CSA (Easton, 2013;Ressel et al, 2018). The implications of the findings are considered together with future research directions.…”

“…Little is known of these aspects of male CSA (Easton, 2013;Ressel et al, 2018). The implications of the findings are considered together with future research directions.…”