Recovery Experiences from Childhood Sexual Abuse among Black Men: Historical/Sociocultural Interrelationships

ABSTRACT

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) can result in devastating and long lasting consequences. Differences in the nature of the abuse differ for males and females and this difference potentially influences recovery. However, studies of recovery from CSA, especially among men, are relatively few, especially for ethnic minority men. The study explored the lived experience of recovery from CSA among African-Caribbean Black male survivors of CSA living in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The theoretical framework was the transactional model of stress and coping, which proposes that stress is an ongoing transaction between the demands of life and a person’s psychological ability to address those demands. The study was qualitative in design, using an interpretive phenomenological approach, involving purposeful sampling, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and interpretive phenomenological analysis of the data informed by a critical race theory lens. The results showed that Black male survivors are situated in unique historical/sociocultural interrelationships that complicate recovery from CSA, including institutional racism and discrimination, restrictive narratives of masculinity, and other cultural norms. These findings can be used to influence policy makers, service providers, and communities, to more effectively support and address the needs of CSA survivors and their affected families.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood sexual abuse
• child abuse
• Black male survivors
• recovery/healing from abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.” No identifying information about participants has been included in the article, therefore, no further consent was needed.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Zeneth E. Myrie

Zeneth E. Myrie, School of Health Sciences, Walden University, Minneapolis, MN; Michael G. Schwab, School of Health Sciences, Walden University, Minneapolis, MN. Zeneth Myrie is now at Sally Horsfall Eaton School of Nursing, George Brown College, Toronto, Ca. Zeneth Myrie, DrPH, RN, is professor at George Brown College, with special interest in health equity, adversity, and post-traumatic stress.

Michael G. Schwab

Michael G. Schwab, DrPH, is Professor of Public Health at Walden University, with a special interest in diversity, inclusivity and emotional awareness in qualitative research.