Ethnic Minority Endorsement of Rape Myths

While multiple studies have been conducted assessing rape myth acceptance among Whites, few studies have examined rape myth acceptance among a broad range of ethnic minorities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess and examine rape myth acceptance among a diverse set of ethnic minorities. This study had 150 participants divided into four categories: Black, Hispanic, White, and Multi-Racial. Six scales were examined rape myth acceptance, own sex role satisfaction, sex role stereotypes, sexual conservatism, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. Participants were predominately single, young adult, low income, highly educated, African-American females who live in an urban area. Participants were heavily recruited through online social networks which included Craigslist, the root.com, BlackPlanet.com, and amightyriver.com. Also, participants were recruited at a private university in South Florida through posters sharing a link to the survey. Dr. Martha Burt\u27s Rape Myth Scale was used and demographic information was obtained. Results showed that gender significantly impacted rape myth acceptance, adversarial sexual beliefs, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. When gender was held constant, race was significant with Blacks endorsing higher sex role satisfaction, sex role stereotypes, and sexual conservatism compared to Hispanics. Blacks had greater sex role satisfaction and sex role stereotyping compared to Multi-Racial individuals. Lastly, Blacks had greater sex role stereotyping and sexual conservatism when compared to White individuals. Additionally, Hispanic individuals endorsed higher sex role satisfaction when compared to Whites and sexual conservatism when compared to Multi-Racial individuals. These results could impact rape prevention programs and clinical work that targets rape myths