Gender, Sex and Rape Myths: Unintended Consequences in School Sex Education?

Background and Purpose: School sex education plays a critical part of teaching youth about healthy sexual development, an important part of adolescence. Sex education is mandated in Ontario schools. Although it strives to teach young people safe and healthy sexuality, no specific curriculum guidelines exist and thus, program delivery may vary widely. Beyond explicit content areas that may be covered, implicit or unintentional messages about sex and gender may also be conveyed through sex education. Furthermore, conversations about sexual violence and its prevention are often avoided, or if addressed, touched upon in a cursory manner. Accordingly, this research explores potential implicit messages received as part of sex education and their effects, and asks specifically: What is the relationship between implicit messages conveyed about gender and sexuality, and acceptance of rape myths?

Methods: Participants were 129 first-year undergraduate students (mean age=19; 65% female; 58% Caucasian; 76% exclusively or predominantly heterosexual) attending a university in southwestern Ontario. Participants received course credit for completing a brief online survey. Using a 0-3 scale, participants indicated the extent to which parents, friends, and schools had communicated each of 60 sexual values. Only school responses are analyzed here. Through factor analysis, four subscales were created: messages about a gendered double standard (7 items; alpha=.82); messages that sex is natural and normal (6 items; alpha=.82); messages that “sex is a game” (7 items; alpha=.87); and messages endorsing sexual abstinence (7 items; alpha=.81). Participants were also asked about their acceptance of rape myths, assessed using an updated version of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (IRMA) Scale, which has four subscales: “She Asked for It;” “He Didn’t Mean To;” “It Wasn’t Really Rape;” and “She Lied.”

Results: OLS regression revealed that after controlling for relevant socio-demographics, messages conveying that “sex is a game” were significantly linked with endorsement of the “She Asked for It” (b=.23, p<.05) and the “It Wasn’t Really Rape” subscale (b=.26, p<.05). There was also a marginal effect with the “He Didn’t Mean To” subscale (b=.21, p<.07). Conversely, the discourse conveying that sex is natural and normal was negatively linked with the “It Wasn’t Really Rape” subscale (b=-.19, p<.05).

Conclusions and Implications: Negative messages about gender and sex may be linked with increased rape myth acceptance, while more positive and normative messages may yield less acceptance. School sex education may be conveying unintended messages and potentially contributing to unwanted outcomes including acceptance of rape myths. Given that rape myth acceptance is linked with increased acceptance of sexual assault, this is a grave concern. More research is necessary to identify whether school sex education, intended to engender healthy and safe sexuality, may be inadvertently contributing to poorer outcomes. Social workers can work to better understand sex education program nuances and messaging, work to counter unhealthy messages with youth, and advocate for more thoughtful, effective sex education. Social work can play a critical, holistic role across practice, policy, and research, working to prioritize adolescent sexual health.