Rape Myths Among Appalachian College Students

Abstract

Rape myths regularly admonish victims for supposedly provoking the violence done against them. While rape attitudes have been studied in national and urban samples, the support of rape myths in rural populations is seldom investigated. Furthermore, the few empirical studies on sexual coercion in Appalachia are mostly descriptive and rarely compare the sentiments of Appalachians and non-Appalachians. To address this gap, this study surveyed 512 college students at a public university in Eastern Kentucky. In testing an Appalachian distinctiveness question, this study revealed that Appalachian students were less likely to criticize rape victims. Students were also less inclined to condemn rape victims when they were victims themselves, came from egalitarian families, stayed in college longer, rejected modem sexism, and felt little animosity toward women.

Check That Body! The Effects of Sexually Objectifying Music Videos on College Men's Sexual Beliefs

“…Aubrey, Hopper, & Mbure/MUSIC VIDEOS AND SEXUAL BELIEFS 377 3 The effects of age and mother's education is similar to recent research showing that being in college longer and coming from a family with a working mother negatively predicted the belief in rape myths (Haywood & Swank, 2008). Thus, it was deemed important to control for these variables.…”

Blaming the Victim: University Student Attitudes Toward Bullying

“…There might be additional concerns over the generalizability of the sample due to this study's use of a college student sample. As noted by Haywood and Swank (2008), "the attitudes of college students and all U.S. adults are probably not identical" (p. 384), as college students typically come from higher SES backgrounds and are more likely to be White, female, and young.…”

“…Much of the literature on victim-blaming attitudes has addressed issues of sexual violence (Haywood & Swank, 2008), domestic violence (Bryant & Spencer, 2003;Pierce & Harris, 1993;Riggs & O'Leary, 1996), and persons with terminal illnesses (Johnson, Mullick, & Mulford, 2002). Although these studies have addressed adult perceptions of victim blaming, including college student attitudes, the literature on victim blaming and bullying has primarily focused on the attitudes of school-age populations (Baldry, 2004;Boulton et al, 1999;Brown et al, 2011;Gini, 2008;Hara, 2002;Hymel et al, 2005;Menesini et al, 1997;Rigby, 2005;Rigby & Slee, 1991;Thornberg & Knutsen, 2011).…”

“…These issues have been addressed repeatedly in the victim-blaming literature regarding sexual violence (Geiger, Fischer, & Eshet, 2004;Haywood & Swank, 2008). The need to include these variables in research that examines victim blaming within the context of bullying might have been viewed as superfluous given that research has produced ambiguous results and the effects of these variables are often found to be conditioned by sex (Geiger et al, 2004).…”

La coerción sexual asociada con los mitos de violación y las actitudes sexuales en estudiantes universitarios

“…16 Se utilizan para negar o justificar la agresión sexual del hombre hacia la mujer; 17,18 reflejan posiciones, valores o sentimientos ante el evento y aseguran la reproducción de los roles de género estereotipados, así como las construcciones sobre las mujeres y lo femenino. 19 Contribuyen al miedo de éstas a sufrir un ataque sexual, así como a la forma en que definen, resisten, enfrentan y sobreviven al evento cuando ocurre, además de que pueden llegar a convencer a las víctimas de ser responsables del hecho 16 e influir en las respuestas que las instituciones les ofrecen. 3,20 Las actitudes involucran preferencias hacia una conducta sexual determinada y están condicionadas por valores personales.…”