Randeniya, Dayanga

English

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University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Research Result Summaries 2021 Influence of Sexual Socialization, Gender Roles and Patriarchal Norms on Rape Myth Acceptance among South Asian Students In Canada Dayanga Randeniya University of Windsor, randeni@uwindsor.ca Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/research-result-summaries Consistent with the TCPS 2 (4.7) this is a research summary provided to participants and should not be considered a formal publication of results. Recommended Citation Randeniya, D. (2021). Influence of Sexual Socialization, Gender Roles and Patriarchal Norms on Rape Myth Acceptance among South Asian Students In Canada. Retrieved from https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/research-result-summaries/151 This Completed Summary is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in Research Result Summaries by an authorized administrator of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact scholarship@uwindsor.ca. Not much is known about the experiences of sexual violence of South Asian women living in Canada, since most gender-based violence research about such women focuses on domestic/intimate-partner violence. This study was an attempt to begin to address this important gap. It is important to conduct more research on sexual violence, especially since the strong stigma towards survivors of rape within the South Asian community: where women are blamed for experiencing rape and bringing shame to their families and communities, could prevent South Asian women survivors, even in Canada, from seeking help. This type of stigma towards sexual violence also has the potential to encourage South Asians to believe misleading myths among about rape, which is also known as ‘rape myth acceptance’.  The social learning theory and the ecological systems theory shows that certain practices and attitudes within all cultural communities have the ability to influence community members on how they think about the act of rape; how it happens, who is responsible and how it can be avoided. In this study, the focus was on whether a) a person’s gender, b) the information given by parents and friend groups about sex (sexual socialization), c) a person’s own thoughts about traditional expectations of men and women in society (gender roles) and d) a person’s own beliefs on male dominance over women in various aspects of society (patriarchal beliefs), were together able to predict how much or how little a South Asian student living in Canada believes in rape myths.  An ethnically diverse sample of 116 South Asian students in Canada (60 men and 56 women 17 to 25 years old), born and raised in Canada and South Asia completed an online survey. Findings showed that male students were more accepting of rape myths than female students. Additionally, students who had more traditional attitudes towards gender roles and supported patriarchal norms at higher levels were more accepting of rape myths. While men received more supportive messages about engaging in sex compared to women, sexual socialization was not related to rape myth acceptance when other attitudes were considered, and there were no differences found in these attitudes between students, whether they were born and raised in Canada or South Asia. These findings suggest that a person’s gender, attitudes towards gender roles and patriarchal beliefs do in fact play a key role in influencing how South Asian students in Canada engage with rape myth acceptance.  Keywords: sexual violence, South Asian Canadians, sexual socialization, gender roles, patriarchal norms, rape myth acceptance 

Influence of Sexual Socialization, Gender Roles and Patriarchal Norms on Rape Myth Acceptance among South Asian Students In Canada

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1167&amp;context=research-result-summaries

Influence of Sexual Socialization, Gender Roles and Patriarchal Norms on Rape Myth Acceptance among South Asian Students In Canada

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