What Changes In Gender-Responsive Services? Identity-Related Shifts In Connection to Other Men Among Adult Survivors of Sexual Violence

Background and Purpose: Adult male survivors of sexual violence remain largely overlooked in research on recovery and service outcomes. In community-based practice, outcome monitoring typically emphasizes symptom reduction, yet recovery may also involve changes in belonging, relational safety, and comfort connecting with other men. This gap is especially important for social work because shame, stigma, and masculinity-related pressures can shape whether male survivors seek help, remain engaged in services, and experience support as meaningful. Guided by Reference Group Identity Dependence theory, this study examined whether men’s patterns of connection to other men changed during engagement with community-based sexual violence services.

Methods: This pre-post study analyzed routinely collected secondary administrative data from a publicly funded regional initiative in Ontario, Canada, coordinating services for adult male survivors across 17 program sites between 2010 and 2022. Baseline descriptive analyses included 370 adult male clients who completed the Reference Group Identity Dependence Scale–Adult Version (RGIDS-A) at intake. Paired analyses focused on 94 participants with matched pretest and posttest assessments. The RGIDS-A yields four subscales: No Reference Group (NRG), Reference Group Dependent (RGD), Nondependent-Diversity (RGND), and Nondependent-Similarity (RGNS). Attrition analyses compared baseline subscale scores for posttest completers and pretest-only participants. Paired-samples t tests with Holm-Bonferroni-adjusted one-tailed p values were used to evaluate hypothesized pre-post change.

Results: Service duration among paired cases with available date records was highly variable, with a median of 33.0 weeks. Attrition analyses showed negligible baseline differences between posttest completers and pretest-only participants across RGIDS-A subscales (all |d| ≤ .18), supporting the interpretability of observed change. Significant pre-post changes were observed for three subscales, although effect sizes were small. NRG decreased, t(93) = 2.96, adjusted p = .008, d = 0.31, indicating reduced disconnection from male reference groups. RGND increased, t(93) = -2.07, adjusted p = .040, d = -0.21, and RGNS increased, t(93) = -2.35, adjusted p = .033, d = -0.24, indicating greater self-endorsed affiliation with men. RGD did not change significantly, t(93) = 1.08, adjusted p = .143, d = 0.11.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that engagement with sexual violence services may coincide with meaningful identity-related change beyond symptom-focused outcomes. Specifically, men who remained in services and completed follow-up assessment reported less disconnection from other men and greater nondependent male relatedness over time. For social work research and practice, these findings highlight the value of assessing whether survivors feel safer, less alienated, and more able to locate themselves in supportive male connection. In line with the conference theme, the study identifies an important change associated with service engagement in a real-world service system: not only whether men receive counselling, but what may begin to shift in how they relate to others during recovery.