Female sexual assault: the impact on the male significant other.

In this existential-phenomenological investigation five men were interviewed about their experience of being a male significant other (MSO) of a female sexual assault victim. The purpose of the study was to understand the MSO's meaning of the rape and the emotional impact it had on him. The thematic structure of a man's response to having a female significant other sexually assaulted depicts an impact on his emotional life in four significant areas: (1) his immediate painful thoughts and feelings, (2) his relationship with the victim, (3) his world view on male attitudes, and (4) the long-term effects of the trauma. It is an experience that has left him feeling angry, helpless, and guilty, prompted him to self-inspection, and thus changed him forever.