Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse: Becoming Gender-Sensitive and Trauma-Informed

Elkins, Jennifer; Crawford, Katherine; Briggs, Harold E.

doi:10.18060/21301

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Similarly, intervention studies for children have relied on samples entirely (or mostly) composed of girls (Hetzel-Riggin et al, 2007). The low proportion of boys and men in intervention studies for CSA has led the authors of multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses to call for a greater number of boys and men to be included in trials of interventions for individuals exposed to CSA, and for the development of gender-sensitive interventions (Cashmore & Shackel, 2014; Elkins et al, 2017; Foster et al, 2012; Peters et al, 2022; Slegh et al, 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood sexual abuse in boys and men: The case for gender-sensitive interventions.

O’Gorman¹,

Pilkington²,

Seidler³

et al. 2024

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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Objective: To review the literature on the experiences of boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse, and to assess the implications of this literature for trials of interventions and tailored services for this population. Method: We conducted a narrative review of papers pertaining to boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse. Implications of this literature for treatment were critically appraised. Results: Boys and men suffer the negative sequelae of childhood sexual abuse to the same (and sometimes greater) extent as girls and women. Boys and men also experience a number of unique challenges, as the abuse experience may undermine masculine identities and relations. This conflict may contribute to the underreporting of childhood sexual abuse among boys and men. Boys and men are less likely to disclose their abuse experience and wait longer to disclose compared to girls and women. Existing estimates therefore likely underestimate the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among boys and men. Additionally, to date, intervention trials for individuals exposed to childhood sexual abuse have included a disproportionately low number of boys and men, even based on existing prevalence estimates. Conclusions: Further investigation into the treatment needs of boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse is critically important. To facilitate a better understanding of their needs, intervention studies for this cohort should include a greater proportion of boys and men. Studies should also assess the influence of boys' and men's alignments to masculine norms for moderating treatment outcomes as a means to guide gender-sensitive treatments. Clinical Impact StatementThis narrative review found that reported rates of boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse may be underestimated. Additionally, boys and men are underrepresented in studies evaluating psychological treatments for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Taken together, these findings indicate a pressing need for studies to actively seek out and include a greater proportion of boys and men.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood sexual abuse in boys and men: The case for gender-sensitive interventions.

O’Gorman¹,

Pilkington²,

Seidler³

et al. 2024

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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“…There has been some attention paid by scholars to how male victims of domestic and sexual violence use services and how helpful men perceive those services to be. Victimization of males, however, generally continues to be overlooked (Elkins et al, 2017) resulting in limited availability of supports and services (Cheung et al, 2009;Douglas & Hines, 2011;Machado et al, 2017;Tsui et al, 2010). Studies repeatedly show the difficulties faced by male victims in accessing domestic and sexual violence supports and services (Cheung et al, 2009;Douglas & Hines, 2011;Elkins et al, 2017;Machado et al, 2017;Tsui, 2014;Tsui et al, 2010).…”

Section: Male Victims Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Victimization of males, however, generally continues to be overlooked (Elkins et al, 2017) resulting in limited availability of supports and services (Cheung et al, 2009;Douglas & Hines, 2011;Machado et al, 2017;Tsui et al, 2010). Studies repeatedly show the difficulties faced by male victims in accessing domestic and sexual violence supports and services (Cheung et al, 2009;Douglas & Hines, 2011;Elkins et al, 2017;Machado et al, 2017;Tsui, 2014;Tsui et al, 2010). In a cross-sectional study on the helpfulness of domestic violence services, male victims overwhelmingly ranked the existing services as not helpful, with those specifically offered by shelters being ranked the least helpful among all supports and services (i.e., counseling, legal, medical, helplines, services related to substance abuse, shelter, and other services; Tsui, 2014).…”

Section: Male Victims Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging Men Across the Violence Prevention Continuum

Hansen¹,

Wells

Claussen

2021

ASW

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Men have a role to play in the prevention of violence against women; however, there is increasing awareness that the social service sector has failed to adequately engage men in violence prevention programming and advocacy. This study used semi-structured interviews to explore the challenges that a sample of Canadian violence prevention practitioners and organizations face in engaging men in preventing violence and generating practice recommendations for what is needed to better equip practitioners. At an organizational level, findings indicate that more capacity-building around emerging research, strategies, and tools in working with and engaging men in the prevention of violence is required. Challenges around recruiting male staff, in what is primarily considered a female-dominated profession, were also noted. Practitioners also discussed the role of masculine gender norms as barriers to men’s help-seeking and engagement in violence prevention advocacy. Recommendations include expanding social work curriculum and training to include information and resources on working with men, as well as increased research on best and promising practices to support organizations and practitioners in their engagement efforts.

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“…Therefore, a key dimension of violence severity in health research is the degree of distress experienced from exposure to violence. Some evidence shows that how men conceptualize violence and how distressed they are consequent to being targets and/or perpetrators of violence differs from women [15]. Violence exposure, particularly IPV, for men often is measured using tools that were originally developed for women [16] and ignores gender, the lens through which violence is perceived, evaluated, expressed, and experienced [17,18].…”

Section: Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative lifetime violence severity scale: development and initial testing among men

et al. 2020

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Background: Knowledge of the relationship between men's health and violence is flawed by narrow and faulty conceptualization and measurement of violence that often results in attribution of health problems to one form or type of violence without consideration of other exposures. Our purpose is to describe the development and initial testing of the Cumulative Lifetime Violence Severity scale designed for use in health research to measure men's perceptions of the severity of their cumulative lifetime violence. Methods: We framed the dimensions of violence severity as: type (physical, psychological, sexual), timing (childhood, adulthood), focus (perpetrator, target), context, frequency, and degree of distress. Items reflecting these dimensions were vetted by local experts including individuals who identified as men, with particular attention to meaningful language for men. The measure was pretested, revised to 64 items, and tested for test-retest reliability prior to use in a study of 685 English-speaking Eastern Canadian men, ages 19 to 65 years. We used Principal Components Analysis to illuminate the underlying dimensionality of the items. Results: Principal Components Analysis yielded a 44-item 11 component solution that accounted for 64.06% of variance with good model fit and a Cronbach's alpha of .92. All dimensions of our conceptualization of violence severity were reflected in the components, except Adult Target Sexual Violence. Convergent validity between the Cumulative Lifetime Violence Severity-44 Scale and a global lifetime violence rating scale was r = .750 (p < .001) and concurrent validity was moderate and significant between the Cumulative Lifetime Violence Severity-44 scale and measures of mental health problems commonly experienced by people with violence histories. Conclusions: The Cumulative Lifetime Violence Severity-44 scale shows promise as the first comprehensive measure of cumulative lifetime violence for health research that considers gender, individual distress and experiences as both perpetrator and target. Next steps include further exploratory analysis with a more diverse sample of men and confirmatory factor analysis.

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Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse: Becoming Gender-Sensitive and Trauma-Informed

Cited by 14 publications

References 70 publications

Childhood sexual abuse in boys and men: The case for gender-sensitive interventions.

Childhood sexual abuse in boys and men: The case for gender-sensitive interventions.

Engaging Men Across the Violence Prevention Continuum

Cumulative lifetime violence severity scale: development and initial testing among men

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