Male sexual abuse: a review of effects, abuse characteristics, and links with later psychological functioning

Despite the increasing awareness of sexual victimization involving males, t here remain a number of factors (e.g., stigma of homosexuality, male ethic of self-reliance) that continue to contribute to the underreporting of such cases. Nonetheless, there appears to be growing recognition of male sexual abuse as a serious problem with potentially numerous debilitating conseque nces. The clinical and research literature presently contains a number of a rticles on issues pertaining to males who have experienced sexual abuse dur ing childhood. The purpose of the present paper is to review some of the mo re recent literature on the short- and long-term effects commonly found amo ng sexually abused males. These effects, which include depression, self-bla me, low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, and sexuality problems, are also compa red with findings commonly reported among sexually abused females. In addit ion to sexual abuse effects, the present paper also reviews a number of imp ortant sexual abuse characteristics (e.g., age of abuse onset, duration of the abuse, nature of the sexual activity), examines the relationship of the se characteristics to later psychological functioning, and explores gender similarities and differences. Finally, the implications of the findings wit h regard to treatment interventions are briefly discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.