This study examined if and how male survivors' personal meanings of masculinity influenced the impact of childhood sexual abuse. Gender was defined as the individual male survivor's personal construction of masculinity within the context of the sociocultural construction of traditional masculinity. Six men participated in in-depth unstructured interviews. Data analysis of the verbatim transcriptions of the interviews was guided by qualitative methods associated with a constructivist paradigm. All men reported numerous long-term effects similar to those reported by female survivors with no clear relation to gender. Results, however, also suggested that variations in male survivors' personal meanings of masculinity were associated with different outcomes. Male survivors who held personal constructions of masculinity as more traditional reported disturbances in their sense of self as masculine and their sexuality as males. Male survivors who held less traditional personal constructions of masculinity reported fewer or no difficulties in these areas. The results of this study challenge theoretical models on male victimization that propose restrictive male responses to trauma, and highlight the importance of taking into account the individual male survivor's personal meaning of masculinity for a more complete understanding of the impact of sexual abuse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-10212004-001145 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Miller, Colleen Michelle |
| Contributors | Hay, Deborah |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-10212004-001145 |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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