Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse: perceived social support as a correlate of imposter phenomenon — an exploratory study

Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) often grapple with lasting self-doubt and feelings of fraudulence, hallmarks of imposter phenomenon. We investigated how perceived social support from family, friends, and significant others (SO) relates to imposter phenomenon (IP) in this group, expecting higher degrees of support to link with lower imposter feelings. Using a cross-sectional design, 85 male participants aged 20–35 years from Delhi NCR, participated through purposive and snowball methods, completed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. Analyses indicated significant negative associations between Imposter Phenomenon and the Perceived Social Support (PSS) (r = –.567, p < .01) and its domains of Significant Other (r = –.609, p < .01), Friends (r = –.490, p < .01), and Family (r = –.426, p < .01). Hierarchical Regression analysis showed that age and education accounted for 3.8% variance in IP, PSS total with age and education explained 32.9% where R2 = .329, F (3,81) = 13.24, p < .001, while PSS sub-domains with age and education explained 38.1% of the variance in perceived social support, R2 = .382, F (5, 79) = 9.74, p < .001. Inverse links between social support and imposter phenomenon were confirmed, pinpointing significant other as particularly protective, followed by friends and family. These insights strengthen the need to provide tailored support strategies for male survivors and call for expanded research despite constraints of sample size and cross-sectional data in India.