Disclosure is a prominent variable in child sexual abuse research, but little research has examined male disclosure experiences. Sixteen male survivors of childhood sexual abuse were interviewed regarding experiences of disclosure. Analytic techniques included a grounded theory approach to coding and the use of conceptually clustered matrices. Participants described distinct personal (e.g., lack of cognitive awareness, intentional avoidance, emotional readiness, and shame), relational (e.g., fears about negative repercussions, isolation), and sociocultural (e.g., lack of acceptance for men to experience or acknowledge victimization) reasons for their struggles with disclosure. These results highlight that barriers to disclosure exist in multiple domains of experience and are encountered across the lifespan. Implications for future research and clinical interventions are discussed.

Male childhood sexual abuse survivors face the same social pressures as other men to live up to the tenets of masculinity. However, they contend with a disjuncture between cultural definitions of manhood and the discordant experience of sexual victimization. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 resilient men varying in age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. The authors analyzed the men's narratives concerning male role socialization for toughness, stoicism, and aggressive sexuality, as well as the impact of childhood sexual abuse. Results indicate that in their paths toward recovery, the participants repeatedly described both containing and resisting traditional masculine roles and made conscious choices not to become perpetrators. The importance of raising awareness about masculinity myths in clinical interventions is discussed.

This in-depth qualitative study explores how 16 resilient male survivors of serious childhood sexual abuse, representing a range of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, made meaning from their abuse experiences. Three main types of meaning making styles were identified in the narratives: meaning making through action, using cognitive strategies, and engaging spirituality. Meaning making through action included helping others and using creative expression to describe and process the abuse. Reasoning systems that helped survivors to understand why the abuse happened included developing a psychological framework for understanding the abuser or the role of the self in the abuse, using a sociocultural explanation, or developing a philosophical view. A few men made meaning through their spirituality. Meaning making styles seem to be related to experiences with therapy; the more experience these men had had with specialized trauma therapy, the more likely they were to make meaning by attempting to understand their perpetrators. In this study, men of color, regardless of socioeconomic class, were less likely than Caucasian men to have received specialized trauma therapy.

Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse face challenges resolving sexual victimization experiences with the ideals of masculinity, often experiencing intimacy problems, emotional discomfort, alienation, and anger. Little attention has been paid to how male survivors learn to develop long-term connections, disclose emotions in relationship contexts, and negotiate intimacy. The current qualitative study of 16 adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse, examined the relational challenges and the processes by which these survivors improved their capacity for seeking and participating in supportive relationships over time. Several mechanisms associated with positive adaptation were identified in their narratives, including engaging in safe relationships; gaining a sense of belonging by locating a community of others with shared experiences; learning healthy ways to manage relationships through setting boundaries, controlling anger, building trust, and developing intimacy; and achieving acceptance. Clinical implications and future directions for research and intervention are presented.

Feminist psychologists have long posited that relationship authenticity (i.e., the congruence between what one thinks and feels and what one does and says in relational contexts) is integral to self-esteem and well-being. Guided by a feminist developmental framework, the authors investigated the role of relationship authenticity in promoting girls' self-esteem over the course of adolescence. Latent growth curve modeling was used to test the association between relationship authenticity and self-esteem with data from a 5-year, 3-wave longitudinal study of 183 adolescent girls. Results revealed that both relationship authenticity and self-esteem increased steadily in a linear fashion from the 8th to the 12th grade. Girls who scored high on the measure of relationship authenticity in the 8th grade experienced greater increases in self-esteem over the course of adolescence than girls who scored low on relationship authenticity. Further, girls who increased in authenticity also tended to increase in self-esteem over the course of adolescence. The importance of a feminist developmental framework for identifying and understanding salient dimensions of female adolescence is discussed.