Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

Towards malecentric communication: sensitizing health professionals to the realities of male childhood sexual abuse survivors.

Teram E, Stalker C, Hovey A, Schachter C, Lasiuk G

Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. eteram@wlu.ca

This article extends earlier reports of an ongoing qualitative inquiry on childhood sexual abuse survivors' experiences with health professionals. In this paper, we aim to enhance understanding of male survivors' experience. While male and female participants express similar anxieties and fears about their encounters with health professionals, there are gender-based differences related to the perceptions of victimhood and manhood; guilt and shame; homophobia; disclosure of abuse; and the expression of vulnerability. The implications of these differences for sensitive health care practice are analyzed within the context of gender relationships and the differential socialization of men. Malecentric communication is proposed as a method for addressing the specific experiences of male survivors in their encounters with health professionals.

Published 14 April 2006 in Issues Ment Health Nurs, 27(5): 499-517.
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