NAU College Date Rape Attitude and Behavior Survey 2006

 

Introduction

Sexual and relationship violence continues to be a public health problem on campuses across the nation. In 2005, the National College Health Assessment (Leino, 2005a) reported that 4.4% of women and 2.4% of men stated that they have received verbal threats for sex against their will and 2.1% of women and 0.7% of men had experienced sexual penetration against their will within the past year.

 

The National College Health Assessment (Leino, 2005b) conducted on the NAU Flagstaff campus in 2005 found that 3.1% of women and 1.7% of men stated that they have received verbal threats for sex against their will and 1.4% of women and 0.5% of men had experienced sexual penetration against their will within the past year.

 

The purpose of the survey was to establish baseline information about attitudes and behaviors that place women and men of all ages regardless of class standing at risk for sexual assault and relationship violence. This information could be useful to help evaluate the effectiveness of programs that target sexual assault and relationship violence on NAU’s campus.

 

Instrument used: College Date Rape Attitude and Behavior Survey (CDRABS) developed by Lanier and Elliot (1997). This instrument was derived from the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980) and Attitudes Toward Rape Scale (Feild, 1978).

Method

Sixteen hundred students were randomly selected to participate in the Date Rape Attitude and Behavior Risk assessment of the 2006 Health and Wellness Survey conducted by Fronske Health Center’s Health Promotion Office. Two hundred ninety eight people returned surveys giving a response rate of about 19%. This sample of respondents was 67.1% female and 30.5% male.  The random sample included a high proportion of graduate students; 63% of the sample and represented 58.4% of the respondents. The ethnic make up of the respondents was 77.2% Caucasian, 5.4% Hispanic, 5.4% Native American, 4.7% Asian-Pacific Islander, and 4.7% other. Residence was identified as 30.5% on-campus and 65.4% off-campus.

Instrument

We used 19 of the 20 items from the (CDRABS) Attitudinal scale and 6 of the 7 behavioral scale. All items used a 5-point Likert scale response matrix. Responses for the attitudinal scale were strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree; and the behavioral scale response options were always, most of the time, sometimes, rarely, and never. Items were appropriately reverse-scored in order to score items with 5 as the maximum point scoring for “desirable (anti-rape) responses” (Lanier and Elliot, 1997). Mean attitude and behavioral scores were calculated for all individuals and for each item score. A comparison of women’s and men’s responses was made for overall attitude and behavior scores and for individual item scale items.

 

Table 1. Attitude and behavior mean scores

 

 

Table 2. Attitude responses of women and men

 

 


Table 3. Self-reported behavioral responses of women and men

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results

Results from these survey questions indicate that both men and women at NAU need more sexual assault education.  Though women had more desirable (anti-rape) responses, they still had many responses with scores indicating a neutral attitude towards risk-related beliefs, and scores indicating risk behaviors sometimes occur.  

 

NAU students’ neutral attitude regarding the effect of alcohol and other drugs on sexual decision making should be addressed in sexual assault education programs. Studies have shown that approximately one-half of all sexual assaults are committed by men who have been drinking alcohol, and similarly approximately one-half of all sexual assault victims report drinking alcohol at the time of the assault (Abbey et al: 2001).  

 

A difference between men and women that should be addressed is that men were more likely to be neutral in the belief that when a woman invites a man back to her place that something sexual will occur.  In contrast, women’s responses were leaning towards disagreeing with this statement.  Men could benefit by being educated in a mixed-gender educational setting on the cultural myth about invitations for sex. 

 

The lack of NAU students who display their displeasure when hearing a sexist comment should be addressed.  Men almost rarely display their displeasure, which can be damaging to women.  According to Men Can Stop Rape words are very powerful and language can send messages that women are less than fully human making it easier to disregard their rights and ignore their well-being (Men Can Stop Rape: 2006).

References

  1. Abbey, A., et al. (2001).   Alcohol and sexual assault.  National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Alcohol Health and Research World, 25 (1).

 

  1. Burt, M.R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 217-230.

 

  1. Field, H.S. (1978). Attitudes toward rape: A comparative analysis of police, rapists, crisis counselors and citizens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 156-179.

 

  1. Lanier, C.A., & Elliot, C.A.(1997). A new instrument for the evaluation of a date rape prevention program. . Journal of College Student Development, 38(6), 673-676.

 

  1. Leino, V.E. (2005a). National College Health Assessment: Reference group data report. American College Health Association, Spring, p. 6-7. Baltimore, MD.

 

  1. Leino, V.E. (2005b). National College Health Assessment: Northern Arizona University executive summary. American College Health Association, Spring, p. 6. Baltimore, MD.

 

  1. Men Can Stop Rape: What Men Can Do. (2006) Electronic Document,  Retrieved on March 30, 2006 from http://www.mencanstoprape.org /info-url2699/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=49606.