Trauma and Self Blame

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