Maternal Sexual Abuse of Males

✍ Scribed by Kim Etherington

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 184 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199705)6:2<107::aid-car301>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

Abuse of Males

This article presents one aspect of the ®ndings of a qualitative research study which explored the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the lives of a non-clinical sample of 25 adult males who responded to advertisements for adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The author conducted in-depth interviews with the men to discover how their experiences of childhood sexual abuse had in¯uenced their psychosocial development. Thirteen of the 25 men were abused by females. This article focuses on seven men who were abused by their mothers and describes how de®nition, prevalence and outcomes of maternal sexual abuse are aected by male socialization, creating additional diculties for these men. The author describes some of the psychological defence mechanisms used by this sample of men, explores some of the reasons for maternal abuse and issues to be considered by practitioners. *