NCJ Number
169128
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 12 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 665-674
Date Published
1997
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Myth Scale, developed to offer a means of reliably measuring acceptance of child sexual abuse myths and stereotypes, was administered to a sample of 146 men and 259 women drawn from the general population.
Abstract
Scale items were based on data from an extensive review of the popular and professional literature related to CSA, consultation with clinicians and other experts in the CSA field, interviews with persons involved in abuse incidents (victims, offenders, and nonoffending family members), and audience responses to public presentations about attitudes toward CSA. Factors included in the analysis were blame diffusion, denial of abuse, and restrictive abuse stereotypes. The analysis supported the hypothesis that social attitudes toward child sexual abuse constituted a multidimensional construct. The CSA Myth Scale yielded a Cronbach alpha of 0.764 and a test-retest validity coefficient of 0.874. CSA Myth Scale factors showed good convergent and discriminant validity in that factor scores were highly correlated in expected directions with scores on the Burt Rape Myth Scale and the Jackson Incest Blame Scale. 39 references and 2 tables