Grant: Team Grant: Boys' and Men's Health - CIHR/PHAC

This Team grant tackles the hidden problem of sexual violence (SV)victimization among male youths, from early adolescence to young adulthood. SV reflects a range of unwanted, coercive and non-consensual experiences, from sexting to rape. SV (including terms as childhood sexual abuse/CSA, sexual coercion in dating relationships, sexual exploitation of adolescents and emerging adults) represents a human rights, public health, and gender-based issue. Global population estimates of male CSA (8%) are in-line with Canadian national estimates (5.8% before age 16), and provincial estimates (e.g., 8.3% in Ontario).In US Justice data, where assaults were reported to police, in about 7000 incidents reported over a 5 year period, <9 years old was the peak age, followed by the 10 - 19 year old group. These took place most often in a residence, but also in a commercial place, college, and jail. Males experiencing SV present to varying service systems - child welfare, street services, residential care, mental health and substance abuse services, emergency services - yet, may never have their victimization recognized, and trauma-focused services may be required, but do not exist or may not be made available. Further, some victims may be asymptomatic and function well in daily living. Importantly, this Teams' projects target both contexts of challenge (rural/remote Aboriginal; child welfare; homelessness etc.), as well as contexts of resilience (high school or university attending). With stakeholders, this team seeks to fill in gaps on the level of SV among male youths; the processes underlying both impairment and resilience, and promising interventions.