Development of Rape Myths Scale and Its Relation with Gender Role Attitudes

The aim of the present research was to develop a Rape Myths Scale which could assess the extent to which people believe disbelieve in rape myths. This research also aimed at finding a relationship between student gender role attitudes and their belief in rape myths, and seeing the effects of different demographic variables. like sex of the participants and level of parents education on these attitudes. Two studies have been carried out. Study I concerned itself with the development of a Rape myths Scale. Study II involved administering the Sex Role Attitude Scale Anila & Ansari 1992) and the Rape myth Scale to100 students (50 women, 50 men) of Quad-i-Azam university. The results showed a significant relationship between gender role attitudes and rape myths. Students who had relatively more traditional gender role attitude had a greater belief in rape myths and vice versa. The study also revealed that men had significant more traditional gender role attitudes and beliefs in rape myths, as compared to the women. and the participants with less educated parents had significantly more traditional gender role attitudes and more belief in rape myths, The study pointed out gaps in the literature and stressed the need for more research in the area as well as provided opportunities to design effective interventions in this field.