Over the past two decades society has become more aware of the prevalence and impact
of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). While society has become more aware of this problem, there
is still much that remains unknown. This is evident especially in regard to the effects of CSA on
adult males. There are several reasons for this; one such reason is that males who come to
therapy are rarely asked about sexual abuse histories. However, the effects of CSA are often
quite severe for males. One area particularly affected is adult close relationships. Attachment
theory offers a way to conceptualize how people interact in close relationships. In this study, the
influence of CSA on adult male relationships was examined. Seven hypotheses examined were
that males who were abused by a male, males who were abused for a longer period of time,
males who were abused at an earlier age, males who perceived little support from their family
with regards to the abuse, males who were abused by a family member, males who were abused
more frequently, and males who were abuse more severely would be more likely to have an
insecure attachment than other males. These CSA characteristics were measured by the
Childhood Sexual Experiences Questionnaire and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ).
Although limitations to this study make it difficult to reject the null hypothesis and to make
statements that these results reflect the population, findings generally confirm the stated
hypotheses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4286 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Altman, Daniel Rayner |
| Contributors | Brossart, Daniel F. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 549176 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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