Rape myth acceptance among intercollegiate student athletes: a preliminary examination

American Journal of Health Studies, Winter, 2002 by Robin G. Sawyer, Estina E. Thompson, Anne Marie Chicorelli

Abstract: This study was an attempt to develop a better understanding about rape myth attitudes among a convenience sample of 704 intercollegiate student athletes from five different universities. Regression analyses indicated that higher rates of rape myth acceptance were identified in male athletes, male freshmen/sophomore athletes, male athletes who played a team-based versus individual sport, and female athletes who participated in division one versus division two athletic programs. The study concludes that student athletes are not a homogenous group with regard to rape myth acceptance, and the study provides recommendations for date rape prevention programming and future research.

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Many researchers have established that sexual assault and date rape are problems that exist on contemporary college and university campuses (Aizenman & Kelley, 1988; Koss, Gidycez, & Wisniewski, 1989; Douglas, Collins & Warren, 1997). Depending on the studies being examined, the prevalence of date rape can range from 10 to 20% of the sample surveyed. For example, data from the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey collected from 136 institutions estimated that 20% of college women had at some point in their lives been forced to have sexual intercourse (Douglas, Collins & Warren, 1997). However in a separate study, 45% of the student population sampled reported either knowing someone who had been raped or had themselves been a victim of rape (Chng & Burke, 1999).

Although perpetrators of date rape can come from any part of the college community, two campus populations have been identified as possibly being "high risk" with regard to perpetrating sexual violence--fraternity members and athletes. Although these two communities have been associated with sexual violence, there is a very limited amount of published research on this connection. In a synthesis of sexual assault research, O'Sullivan indicated that of all the gang rapes reported on college campuses between 1980-1990, fraternity members were believed to have committed 55% of these crimes (O'Sullivan, 1991). In another campus-based study, although only 25% of the male students were fraternity members, they accounted for 63% of the sexual assaults, with 24% of all sexual assaults having occurred in fraternity housing (O'Shaughnessy & Plamer, 1990).

If the available research on fraternity involvement is limited, the existence of empirical data on athletes is even more scarce. In addition, we have very little understanding about differences among athletes, because researchers have tended to refer to and view athletes as a monolithic population. In a study of women experiencing sexual aggression at a large mid-western university, male athletes were disproportionately over-represented among the assailants described by the women surveyed. Though male athletes made up less than 2% of the male population on campus, they represented 23% of the men accused of sexual assault (Frintner & Rubinson, 1993). One study on sexual aggression among college men examined team differences and suggested that male athletes on revenue-producing teams (football and basketball) self-reported higher rates of sexually abusive behavior than peers on non-revenue teams (Koss & Gaines, 1993). Despite the paucity of published scientific research on this subject, the suspicion that date rape is an "athlete problem" is maintained by many forms of media and communication, including the internet. One web site, entitled the "Sports Hall of Shame" lists literally hundreds of college and professional athletes accused of sexual violence (Sports Hall of Shame, 2001), while another web site specifically targets college athletes accused of sexual assault on a page named "NCAA's Most Wanted" (NCAA's Most Wanted, 2001). Despite this type of public attention, there are no existing quantitative data on student athlete perceptions concerning their role in sexual aggression. An additional void in the literature is the dearth of information relating specifically to women athletes and their attitudes toward sexual violence. Although evidence exists from previous studies that college males are more likely than females to subscribe to attitudes that are more accepting of rape and sexual violence (Syzmanski, Devlin, Chisler, & Vyse, 1993), there are no data examining this construct with female athletes. Effective programming around this issue becomes more difficult to develop when the levels of athlete recognition or acknowledgement of the problem are not in evidence.

One measure that has been widely used to examine the likelihood that an individual will be accepting of violence within a relationship is "rape myth." Rape myth has been defined as "attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but are widely and persistently held, and that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women"(p. 134) (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994). Generally, individuals subscribing to rape myth tend to believe that aggressors are not responsible for their actions and/or the victims are to blame for their predicament. One of the most frequently used instruments to measure this construct is the Burt Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (BRMAS). Research using this scale suggests that a person's acceptance of rape myths is correlated with an increased acceptance of dating violence, and attitudes that reflect adherence to rape myth beliefs can include sex role stereotyping, acceptance of violence as a part of relationships, and the idea that sexual relationships are basically exploitive (Burt, 1980). Further, researchers have hypothesized that an individual's propensity to rape is significantly associated with the degree to which he/she subscribes to rape myth acceptance (Koss, Leonard, Beezely, and Oros, 1985). Research findings also suggest that belief in rape myths may influence a person's definition of rape. As an individual's acceptance of rape myths increases, the narrower his or her definition of date rape becomes (Burt, 1980).