Trauma and Self-Blame: Understanding the Psychological Impact on Men

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 malesurviv