Trauma and Self-Blame: Understanding the Psychological Impact on Men

Survivors of adult sexual assault (ASA) and child sexual abuse (CSA) experience numerous

negative consequences because of the violence they experienced. Self-blame is an important

symptom to consider, and some research has shown certain characteristics may lead to increased

trauma-related self-blame for survivors. High rates of self-blame are likely to lead to increased

symptomatology and increased treatment resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the

relationship between rape myth acceptance, tonic immobility, negative disclosure response

experiences, substance use, and sexual arousal and how they may impact trauma-related selfblame

for male survivors of adult sexual assault and/or child sexual abuse. 179 cisgender men

with a history of CSA and/or ASA completed online measures to assess for rape myth beliefs,

tonic immobility, disclosure experiences, sexual arousal, and substance use. Findings

demonstrated that only rape myth acceptance significantly predicted self-blame in male

survivors. Additionally, results indicated participants who used substances within 72 hours of

their nonconsensual sexual event and previously disclosed their abuse experienced higher rates

of self-blame than those who did not. Notably, even though sexual arousal was not a significant

predictor in this study, only 2.8% of the total sample reported experiencing no indications of

physiological sexual arousal and 60% had significant experiences of physiological sexual

arousal. Additionally, over two thirds of the sample never disclosed the nonconsensual sexual

event to anyone. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.