International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 3 2022 56
a) Possible prompt: What was happening in
your relationships at the time?
b) Possible prompt: What was happening in
your professional/work life at the time?
2) Please tell me about any specific experiences
you may have had that prompted you to disclose
the childhood sexual abuse you experienced.
a) Possible prompt: What did those
experiences mean to you at that time?
3) Tell me about one specific experience that
may have been the proverbial “straw that broke
the camel’s back” that prompted you to disclose.
a) Possible prompt: What made this
experience particularly influential?
4) Please describe anything that you may have
done to prepare yourself for the disclosure (see
Cacciatori, 2017).
a) Possible prompt: Tell me about
what happened between when you
decided to disclose and when you
actually told a mental health professional.
5) Please describe in as much detail as you
can remember the exchange you had with
the mental health professional in which you
disclosed the abuse.
a) Possible prompt: What was the
emotional experience you had
immediately prior to disclosing?
6) What was the experience of disclosing like for
you (see Desierto, 2014 Seville, 2011)?
7) As you look back at the experience, please
tell me about anything that would have made it
easier for you to disclose (see Desierto, 2014).
8) How did you decide on the specific mental
health professional with whom you disclosed
(see Desierto, 2014)?
9) Please tell me about other attempts at
disclosure, but you decided not to disclose then.
a) Possible prompt: What held you back
from disclosing at that time?
10) Please tell me about any point in time at
which you may have regretted disclosing the
experience of childhood sexual abuse (see
Desierto, 2014).
Analysis
Analysis in IPA methodology includes a statement
that describes the positionality of the researcher in
relationship to the topic. Researchers need to provide
enough information so that others wanting to imitate
the study can follow the same procedures. Finally,
issues of credibility, transferability, and dependability,
and confirmability must be addressed.
This work came out of James’s dissertation and the
subsequent collaboration of the three of us. Based on
this process, we chose to include the direct quotation
of James’s original positionality statement, despite its
length:
Part of the bracketing process in IPA requires
researchers to disclose their own positionality
in relation to the research topic (J. A. Smith et
al., 2009). I am a survivor of childhood physical
abuse, but not childhood sexual abuse. I did have
one encounter with a Catholic priest that at the
very least was a violation of physical boundaries.
I spent years questioning this experience. This
experience included nonsexual physical contact
that was not invited and would be considered
a clear violation of physical boundaries. While
this experience did not involve genital contact
or other sexual noncontact, I was left feeling
uncomfortable and unsure of myself afterward.
Years later, I learned this priest was removed
from ministry because he had sexually abused
other students in the school I attended. In my
professional career and work with sexual abuse
and sexual assault victims, I have learned about
the stages of abuse, including what is often
referred to as “the grooming process,” when the
abuser is preparing a victim for abuse to take
place later (McAlinden, 2015). I believe at this
time that the priest in this encounter with me
had begun the grooming process perhaps to
prepare me for abuse later.
I never disclosed this experience to anyone until

ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54208/0003 57
I met a man, a colleague at work, who spoke
publicly as an advocate and who is a survivor
of incestual childhood sexual abuse. I shared
my story with him, and together we began to
discuss how we could support men coming
forward who had experienced childhood sexual
abuse. As I researched in my work with this
advocate, I realized the severity of the lack of
information out there specifically about male
survivors’ experiences of childhood sexual
abuse, and even less so, [the lack of] literature
discussing how to support men during
disclosure. This is where I want to devote my
energy. I am a cisgender, heterosexual man who
wants to support other men, regardless of their
sexual identity or orientation. My desire is to
bring understanding to our profession so that
male survivors will feel empowered to tell their
stories and seek help. (J. M. Smith, 2020, pp.
59–60)
IPA Process
J. A. Smith et al. (2009) laid out a 6-step process for
data analysis in IPA. The first step is reading and
rereading the transcribed interviews to immerse the
researcher in the story of the participant. The second
step is for the researcher to take detailed notes during
the original interview, and then go back to those notes
after rereading the transcript. Notes should include
any observations of nuance, language, exaggerations or
diminishment, changes in speech pattern, and so on.
The third step is to develop initial emerging themes
by reducing each transcript to a few words (direct
quotes are best), while staying true to the meaning and
context of those words. The fourth step is to connect
the themes by using abstraction, subsumption,
polarization, contextualization, numeration, function,
and synthesis. The fifth step is to begin again with the
next transcript each transcript should be completed
before moving on to the next. Finally, the sixth step
is to identify the common themes among all the
participants.
Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and
Confirmability
Unlike the quantitative standards of reliability and
validity, qualitative researchers should be able to
demonstrate credibility, transferability, dependability,
and confirmability (Shenton, 2004). We met the
credibility component by using IPA, which is an
established methodology. We further triangulated
the data by sharing interpretations of the data with
participants, who were provided the opportunity to
correct any interpretations. We further triangulated
data by inviting experts in the field to review the work
and offer any insights on items or interpretations.
We met the transferability standard by setting and
maintaining a homogenous sample. We met the
dependability criterion by detailing and publishing
each step of the work in James M. Smith’s dissertation so
that future researchers can repeat the method. Finally,
we met the confirmability criterion by providing details
of the reflexive process during analysis so that the
process for making conclusions and the conclusions
themselves was clear.
Findings
We conducted the interviews with each survivor online
via a synchronous audio-video platform. James M.
Smith transcribed the data and thematized it according
to the data analysis procedures that J. A. Smith et al.
(2009) prescribed for IPA. Four themes emerged from
the lived experiences of these men.
Alone and Not Alone
Adam, Bob, and Carl all described feelings of being
alone in their experiences. Each also described feelings
of being connected to other survivors that helped them
overcome their sense of aloneness. For example, Adam,
who had disclosed initially at age 18 while writing a
college research paper, described the feeling of being
alone as he attempted to understand his experiences
on an academic level:
And as I started doing this research on the
paper (at that point it’s 1990), there was almost
nothing out there. I mean there was ...it made
me feel like more an anomaly and freak because
I’m looking and there ...there was nothing
out there, which now things are a lot different.
(Adam, personal conversation)