Revising the Male Rape Myths Scale.

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to revise the Male Rape Myths Scale (MRMS; Kerr Melanson, 1999), assess the factor structure, and gather reliability and validity evidence in samples of the U.S. undergraduate students. The MRMS items were revised based on a pilot study and expert reviews. We subsequently revised 13 of the original items and added six new items. Next, exploratory factor analyses revealed a correlated two-factor model for 16 items: (a) Marginalization and (b) Victim Culpability. This correlated two-factor model and a bifactor model were both good fits for the data in confirmatory factor analyses. Ancillary bifactor analyses revealed that total scores were mostly accounted for by the common factor. These findings support using Male Rape Myths Scale–Revised (MRMS-R) total scores in future research. MRMS-R scores were positively correlated with measures of female rape myth agreement, victim blaming responses, traditional male gender role ideology, homonegativity toward gay men, and patriarchal beliefs. We also found support for measurement invariance of the MRMS-R between male and female groups. Results provide support for the use of the MRMS-R as an updated measure of male rape myth agreement among college students. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Masculine honor beliefs and perceptions of male rape.

“…Overall, supporting our hypotheses, higher levels of MHBs were uniquely associated with greater MRMA. Theorists argue MRMA is grounded in sociocultural factors related to traditional masculinity (Hogge & Wang, 2022; Turchik & Edwards, 2012), and our findings suggest MHBs are likely among these factors. However, important to note, female rape myth acceptance was by far the strongest predictor of MRMA.…”

“…Supporting our hypotheses, in Study 1, higher levels of MHBs were uniquely associated with a greater acceptance of male rape myths (e.g., "men cannot be raped") above and beyond relevant covariates (e.g., female rape myth acceptance, homophobia). Research suggests sociocultural factors-especially prescriptive stereotypes about male behavior-are central to MRMA (Hogge & Wang, 2022;Turchik & Edwards, 2012), and our results demonstrate MHBs are among factors that trivialize male rape.…”

“…We administered the Male Rape Myths Scale–Revised (Hogge & Wang, 2022), which consists of 16 items (e.g., A man who is raped by another man is probably homosexual ). Participants’ scores were averaged across all items to create a composite score, α = .96.…”

“…3We considered whether the relationship between MHBS and MRMA was an artifact of their previously determined relationships with homophobia (Brand & O’Dea, 2022; Hogge & Wang, 2022). We ran partial correlations between all our individual difference measures and found that MHBs were positively associated with MRMA, even when controlling for other measures such as homonegativity (partial correlation coefficient = .23, p < .001).…”