Adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse: Prevalence, sexual abuse characteristics, and long-term effects

The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: A meta-analysis

“…These factors would seem to influence the low rates of positive responses given by men in studies of child sexual abuse, this being a finding reported by most authors (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Holmes & Slap, 1998;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993).…”

“…The higher prevalence rates reported among women by the studies reviewed enables us to infer that most victims of child sexual abuse are female, although the important percentage of male victims should not be overlooked (Dhaliwal et al, 1996), especially as the latter phenomenon often goes largely unrecognised and is rarely addressed (Holmes & Slap, 1998). The ratio for the prevalence of child sexual abuse is usually around one man to every three women (Finkelhor, 1994), this being consistent with the present findings, where the ratio was 2.5 women for each male victim of sexual abuse.…”

“…The comparatively low prevalence rates for child sexual abuse of males has been discussed by several authors (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993), who consider that one of the most important problems is the methodology used in many studies; it is argued that either the experiences of men are not sufficiently captured by the definition of sexual abuse used, or that men fail to identify themselves with certain questions asked. Social attitudes toward sex and stereotypes about the roles of men and women may also prevent men from explaining their experiences, or even mean that they do not regard what happened as sexual abuse (Violato & Genuis, 1993;Widom & Morris, 1997).…”

“…This would require preliminary conceptual work since present formulations do not appear to adequately capture the experience of male children and youth. It would be necessary to formulate specific questions for each sex, since as several authors have pointed out, some questions about child sexual abuse seem not to include men's experience (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993).…”

“…The importance of sample characteristics and the methodology used to derive prevalence rates has been discussed in several studies, it being highlighted that the percentages vary according to the method through which information was obtained (Starr, Dubowitz, & Bush, 1990), the context in which questions are asked (Koss, 1993), the number of questions asked (Finkelhor, 1979), the gender of participants (Dhaliwal, Gauzas, Antonowicz, & Ross, 1996;Romano & De Luca, 2001) and the ease or difficulty with which participants are able to talk about their sexual experiences, especially as regards sexual abuse, this latter aspect being closely related to cultural variables (Runyan, 1998).…”