Collegiate Perception of Rape

Chwee Lye Chng (Dec. 1999) An Assessment of College Students’ Attitudes and Empathy Toward Rape. College Student Journal

Methods:

The study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey implemented to assess students' attitudes toward rape and empathy toward survivors of rape. A pilot study using 30 college students with a two-week interval was used to establish reliability of the ATR and RES. Subject's birth day, month, and first three digits of their phone numbers were used as identifiers for the retest portion of the pilot study. A two-tailed t test was performed comparing test scores across the 2-week interval. Statistical analysis found a 1.0 correlation for demographic data, .91 alpha reliability coefficient for the ATR, and a .80 alpha reliability coefficient for the RES. Therefore, the ATR and RES were deemed reliable for the study.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to assess rape attitudes and empathy levels of college students in a selected university setting in North Texas.

Sample:

A total sample of 300 subjects was needed to ensure representation within a confidence interval of 95% and .05 sampling error. The sample was drawn from the following courses: from the College of Business Administration, the course "Principles of Real Estate" provided 107 subjects; from the College of Arts and Sciences, the course "U.S. History to 1865" provided 89 students; from the College of Education, "Family Life/Human Sexuality" and "Health Emergency/First Aid" were selected, providing 110 subjects.

Hypotheses:

1. Students who either have known a rape survivor or have themselves been a survivor of rape, will express more rape-intolerant attitudes toward rape and greater empathy levels toward rape survivors than students who have not known a rape survivor or have been the survivor of a rape.

2. Students with female siblings will report more rape-intolerant attitudes toward rape and greater empathy toward rape survivors than students without female siblings.

3. Female students will have more rape-intolerant attitudes toward rape and greater empathy levels toward rape survivors than those of their male counterparts.

4. Students over the age of twenty-six will demonstrate more rape-intolerant attitudes and greater empathy levels toward rape survivors than the students under the age of twenty-six.

Variables:

The dependent variables are attitudes toward rape and empathy toward rape survivors, while the independent variables include: prior history as a rape survivor (knowing a rape survivor or personally being raped), having female siblings, gender, age, and marital status.

Findings:

1. While 2% of the population reported being the survivor of rape by a stranger, 6% indicated they were the survivors of rape by someone known to them. Thirty percent (30%) reported knowing a close friend or family member who had been raped, 74% reporting they had been raped and had also known someone who was raped. In contrast, 55% had never been sexually assaulted or known someone