Trauma and Self-Blame

<p>Survivors of adult sexual assault (ASA) and child sexual abuse (CSA) experience numerous</p><p>negative consequences because of the violence they experienced. Self-blame is an important</p><p>symptom to consider and some research has shown certain characteristics may lead to increased</p><p>trauma-related self-blame for survivors. High rates of self-blame are likely to lead to increased</p><p>symptomatology and increased treatment resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the</p><p>relationship between rape myth acceptance tonic immobility negative disclosure response</p><p>experiences substance use and sexual arousal and how they may impact trauma-related selfblame</p><p>for male survivors of adult sexual assault and/or child sexual abuse. 179 cisgender men</p><p>with a history of CSA and/or ASA completed online measures to assess for rape myth beliefs</p><p>tonic immobility disclosure experiences sexual arousal and substance use. Findings</p><p>demonstrated that only rape myth acceptance significantly predicted self-blame in male</p><p>survivors. Additionally results indicated participants who used substances within 72 hours of</p><p>their nonconsensual sexual event and previously disclosed their abuse experienced higher rates</p><p>of self-blame than those who did not. Notably even though sexual arousal was not a significant</p><p>predictor in this study only 2.8% of the total sample reported experiencing no indications of</p><p>physiological sexual arousal and 60% had significant experiences of physiological sexual</p><p>arousal. Additionally over two thirds of the sample never disclosed the nonconsensual sexual</p><p>event to anyone. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.</p>