A gale force wind: Meaning making by male survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Abstract

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.

The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors

“…men are perpetrators of abuse and women of are victims, not abusers (Dorahy, & Clearwater, 2012;Price-Robertson, 2012;Alaggia & Millington, 2008). The dominant stereotypes found in the literature surrounding masculinity, strength, aggressiveness and dominance also concurred with the results of several other studies, and tended to overpower public opinion and contribute to men feeling that their history of abuse went against gender norms (Anderson, 2011;Alaggia, 2010;Conh, & Zeichner, 2006;Grossman, Kia-Keating, & Sorsoli, 2006;Sorsoli, et al, 2008).…”

“…Preventing future CSA or ensuring that the children around them would have a safe person to disclose to, appeared to be crucial to some of the men. The literature supported the notion that survivors often wanted to protect others; altruistic behaviors were found to help survivors of CSA make meaning of their abuse by turning it in to something more positive (Grossman, 2006;Ullman, Foynes, & Tang, 2010). Receiving strong support from family, friends, and loved ones proved invaluable to several men in our study.…”

“…On one end, only 17 men were recruited in this project. The majority of the studies involving male CSA have relatively small sample sizes due to the challenges linked to recruiting this vulnerable population (Grossman, et al, 2006;Sorsoli, et al, 2008). On another end, the recruitment characteristics only allowed for men who had recently received or were currently receiving services to participate in the study, which could have contributed to two important limitations.…”

“…Of these, six were conducted in North-America (Alaggia, 2010;Alaggia, 2005;Alaggia, 2004;Alaggia, & Millington, 2008;Easton, 2013;Sorsoli, et al, 2008), three in Europe (Anderson, 2011;O'Leary, & Barber, 2008;Schönbucher, et al, 2012) and, one each in Australia and New Zealand (Hunter, 2011;Dorahy, & Clearwater, 2012); none included men from the province of Quebec in their sample. Of the eleven articles that examined the disclosure experience of CSA victims only six solely took in to consideration the perspective of men in regards to their disclosure experience (Anderson, 2011;Alaggia, & Millington, 2008;Dorahy, & Clearwater, 2012;Grossman, et al, 2006;Easton, 2013;Sorsoli, et al, 2008).…”

“…O' Leary and Barber (2008) explained that "negative attitudes towards male victims clearly have the potential to discourage boys from disclosing and men from discussing their experiences as abused children" (p. 136). Men are often seen by our society as being dominant, powerful, even sometimes aggressive; being a victim goes against gender norms and challenges society in what is regarded as weakness (Anderson, 2011;Alaggia, 2010;Conh, & Zeichner, 2006;Grossman, Kia-Keating, & Sorsoli, 2006;Sorsoli, et al, 2008;Hunter, 2009).…”