Sexual Abuse of Boys
Abstract
Topic Sexual abuse in childhood can disable self-esteem, self-concept, relationships, and ability to trust. It can also leave psychological trauma that compromises a boy's confidence in adults. While some boys who willingly participate may adjust to sexual abuse, many others face complications, such as reduced quality of life, impaired social relationships, less than optimal daily functioning, and self-destructive behavior. These problems can respond to treatment if detected. Purpose In this paper, we examine the prevalence, characteristics, psychological consequences, treatment, and coping patterns of boys who have been sexually abused and their failure to disclose abuse unless asked during a therapeutic encounter. Nurses have a responsibility to detect the clues to sexual abuse, diagnose the psychological consequences, and advocate for protection and treatment. Sources used Computerized literature search of the Medline and PsychInfo literature and books on sexual abuse of boys. Conclusions Psychological responses to abuse such as anxiety, denial, self-hypnosis, dissociation, and self-mutilation are common. Coping strategies may include being the angry avenger, the passive victim, rescuer, daredevil, or conformist. Sexual abuse may precipitate runaway behavior, chronic use of sick days, poor school or job performance, costly medical, emergency and or mental health visits. In worst cases, the boy may decide that life is not worth living and plan suicide. The nurse has a key r…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Among those abused as children, men show higher rates of sexual difficulties and risky sexual behavior than women.
“However, dysfunction and sexual risk-taking were more common in men (Valente, 2005;Deering & Mellor, 2011).”
From The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors (2016) · cites this paper as Valente, 2005
Prior authors reported that CSA victims often cope by using drugs and alcohol.
“Indeed the use of drugs and alcohol were found by several authors to be a common coping mechanism for CSA victims (Allagia and Millington, 2008;O'Leary, & Gould, 2010;Valente, 2005).”
From The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors (2016) · cites this paper as Valente, 2005
The literature also links CSA to diminished self-esteem.
“Loss of self-esteem following CSA was also found to be relevant in the literature (Deering, & Mellor, 2011;Valente, 2005).”
From The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors (2016) · cites this paper as Valente, 2005
Other authors reported excessive or unprotected sexual encounters and sexual risk taking among child sexual abuse survivors.
“Other authors highlighted similar behaviors such as excessive or unprotected sexual encounters (Follette, et al., 2009), as well as sexual risk taking (Valente, 2005).”
From The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors (2016) · cites this paper as Valente, 2005
Cites
Bartholow, B. N., Doll, L. S., Joy, D., Douglas, J. M., Bolan, G., Harrison, J. S., Moss, P. M., & McKirnan, D. (1994) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/0145-2134(94)00042-5 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The role of child sexual abuse in the etiology of suicide and non-suicidal self-injury
Maniglio, R. (2011) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01612.x · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Child sexual abuse in the etiology of depression: a systematic review of reviews
Maniglio, R. (2010) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.20687 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Child Sexual Abuse in the Etiology of Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review of Reviews
Maniglio, R. (2013) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/1524838012470032 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
The Disclosure Experiences of Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors
Gagnier, C., & Collin-Vézina, D. (2016) · Journal of Child Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1080/10538712.2016.1124308 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Sivagurunathan, M., Orchard, T., MacDermid, J. C., & Evans, M. (2019) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.08.015 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
The role of child sexual abuse in the etiology of substance-related disorders
Maniglio, R. (2011) · Journal of Addictive Diseases · doi:10.1080/10550887.2011.581987 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
- Authors
- Valente, S. M.
- Corresponding author
- Valente, Sharon M.
- Venue
- Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-01
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 10-16
- ISSN
- 1073-6077 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-6171
- OpenAlex
- W2068880596
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 3.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Military, Security, and Education Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Keywords
- child sexual abuse, psychological effects of abuse, disclosure of abuse, coping strategies, dissociation, self-hypnosis, self-mutilation, suicide risk, runaway behavior, prevalence of sexual abuse
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Anger, Child, Child Abuse, Sexual, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Mass Screening, Men, Mental Health, Nursing Assessment, Patient Advocacy, Psychiatric Nursing, Risk-Taking, Self Concept, Sexual Partners, Suicide, Truth Disclosure, Prevalence, Survivors, Homeless Youth, Substance-Related Disorders, Nurse's Role
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
