Resilience to Child Sexual Abuse in Male College Students

Abstract

Little is known about men's experiences in the aftermath of child sexual abuse (CSA). Consistent themes from qualitative studies were operationalized and tested for their impact on resilience. For the sample of college-enrolled men (n = 55), the themes of mattering and of traditional male attitudes were not related to resilience, but the theme of gender self-acceptance significantly predicted 23% of the variance in resilience scores. Importantly, the men's perceptions of the CSA events they experienced, whether they described these events as abusive or consensual, were not related to the men's resilience scores. The results indicated that effective counseling approaches to support men's recovery processes differ from those supporting women's recovery. These results suggest that mental health counselors should focus on encouraging male survivors' gender self-acceptance, exploring what it means to be a man in modern society, and examining points of connection with and disconnection from that cultural portrayal.