Citation

Charak R, Eshelman LR, Messman-Moore TL. Psychol. Men Masc. 2019; 20(4): 503-514.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/men0000185

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Male sexual abuse has been associated with a number of maladaptive outcomes; however, there is a dearth of research on male revictimization, that is, experiences of victimization in both childhood and adulthood. The current study examined different patterns of victimization based on five types of childhood maltreatment and characteristics of adult sexual assault via latent class analysis. Further, the present study assessed differences across these latent classes in the domains of masculinity, anger, and substance use. A community sample of 294 men ranging in age from 18 to 66 years (M = 32.71; SD = 9.73) was recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online research forum. The latent class analysis identified four classes, namely, revictimization (10.9%), adult substance-related victimization (4.8%), childhood maltreatment (23.8%), and low victimization (60.5%). Differential patterns emerged for masculinity, anger, and substance use, with the revictimization and childhood maltreatment classes differing significantly from the adult substance-related victimization and low victimization classes. Compared with the low victimization class, the three victimization classes were elevated on multiple facets of masculinity; the revictimization class was higher on anger and alcohol- and drug use.

RESULTS provide evidence that research examining childhood or adulthood victimization experiences in isolation may fail to capture the full range of victimization experiences in men.

FINDINGS provide important implications for understanding patterns of victimization among men and how interventions may be targeted to address psychological and behavioral outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en