Social Work Commons^™

Understanding The Impact Of Childhood Sexual Abuse On Men’S Risk Behavior: Protocol For A Mixed-Methods Study, Martin J. Downing Jr., Dominique Brown, Jeffrey Steen, Ellen Benoit

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) remains a critical public health issue among black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as it is associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, poor mental health, revictimization, and high-risk sexual behavior. Most CSA research with MSM relies on quantitative assessment that often precludes consideration of cultural variations in how formative sexual experiences are understood and is based on inconsistent or overly restrictive definitions of abuse, and therefore may fail to detect certain abusive experiences (eg, those involving female perpetrators), which can have harmful health consequences if they remain unrecognized. …