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theses

This dissertation is divided into three separate papers that address campus sexual violence perpetration related attitudes and beliefs, namely rape myth beliefs and rape proclivity. The aim of this study is to better understand college men’s attitudes and beliefs in order to prevent perpetration of sexual violence. Campus sexual violence prevention efforts, while now mandated at the federal and local level, are often ineffective at reducing rates of sexual assault. One method of improving the effectiveness of campus prevention efforts might be to tailor programming toward students with differing attitudes and beliefs related to sexual violence. Research on prevention education for campus sexual violence often examines rape myth beliefs which have never been investigated using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA). These types of techniques categorize or group participants into subgroups that differ based on their beliefs. Paper 1 of this dissertation is the first of its kind to use LPA to examine differing types of levels of rape myth beliefs that incoming college men hold. This study found four profiles or subgroups of men based on their rape myth beliefs. Some groups endorsed lower or mid-levels of rape myths and others endorsed higher levels of some or all rape myths, indicating the heterogeneity of rape myth beliefs. These results can be used to inform prevention efforts geared towards addressing problematic beliefs, such as rape myth beliefs, and used to guide tailoring of such programming toward subgroups of students with differing levels and types of rape myth beliefs.
The two constructs of rape myth beliefs and rape proclivity have been found to be associated with sexual violence perpetration; thus, further understanding these constructs can help improve prevention efforts aimed at reducing sexual violence perpetration. Paper two of this dissertation examines four subgroups (latent profiles) of college men based on their rape myth beliefs in order to examine two research questions:1) is membership within each subgroup/profile differentially associated with rape proclivity? And 2) within each subgroup of rape myth beliefs of college men, is proclivity to perpetrate sexual assault affected by intention to join an all-male sports team and/or a fraternity (two risk-factors) or bystander attitudes (a protective-factor)? The findings indicate that three subgroups of men with moderate or high levels of rape myth beliefs have higher mean rape proclivity scores compared to the subgroup of men with the lowest level of rape myth beliefs. This relationship is significantly decreased by bystander attitudes, a protective-factor, within three of the subgroups. Additionally, intention to join a fraternity, a risk-factor, strengthens rape proclivity in some, but not all, of the subgroups of men. Implications for prevention programming tailored for high-risk groups of men, based on their rape myth beliefs, as well as possible future research within this area are discussed.
Both rape myth beliefs and expressed proclivity to perpetrate a sexual assault are associated with acts of sexual aggression. Although this relationship is assumed to be unidirectional with the acceptance of rape myths contributing to proclivity to perpetrate sexual violence, no studies have examined the possibility of a reciprocal relationship, with both rape myth beliefs and proclivity to perpetrate reinforcing each other over time. This is important as both constructs may increase risk of sexual assault perpetration and support each other over time, further escalating the risk of a sexual assault. Using longitudinal data, Paper 3 of this dissertation investigates these relationships over time according to two models: autoregressive effects of rape myth beliefs and proclivity to perpetrate sexual violence, and rape myth beliefs and rape proclivity predicting each other. The results of this study indicate that reciprocal causality exists for rape myth beliefs and proclivity to perpetrate a sexual assault. The results of this study have clear implications for prevention efforts directed towards modifying attitudes associated with sexual assault perpetration—particularly for men who are at high-risk of perpetrating sexual assault, including those with high rates of rape myth beliefs and proclivity to perpetrate beliefs.

ETD_10104

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-by42-qh70

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.