An Initial Validation of a Measure of Personal and ...

RESEARCH ON SOCIAL WORK PRA 10.1177/1049731504265836 CTICE

Nalavany , Abell / A MEASURE OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS

An Initial Validation of a Measure of Personal and Social Perceptions of the Sexual Abuse of Boys Blace A. Nalavany Neil Abell Florida State University

Objective/Method: The Sexual Abuse of Males Perceptions Scale (SAMPS) is a measure designed to assess an individual’s personal and projected social perceptions of myths about the sexual abuse of boys and men. Myths are rigid, stereotypical beliefs that invalidate the experiences and minimize the profound effects of sexual abuse on boys and men. This study establishes the initial psychometric properties for the SAMPS, based on a sample of 333 students enrolled in diverse courses (i.e., business, psychology, social work, urban and regional planning, and education) at a large, southern university. Results/Conclusions: The SAMPS was developed as a three-factor instrument. Preliminary findings confirm this structure and indicate the SAMPS shows promise for future uses relating to training, research, and clinical practice. Keywords:

sexual abuse of boys and men; myths; psychometric study

After previous decades of silence, the women’s movement of the 1970s triggered the social and professional validation of the sexual abuse of girls and women (Coutois, 1988). In contrast, the general public, graduate training programs, children and youth services, social policy makers, clinical agencies, and practitioners have until recently largely disregarded the sexual abuse of boys. Thus, when it comes to the sexual abuse of boys and men, social validation and clinical interventions lag behind (Holmes, Offen, & Waller, 1997). On the positive side, the emerging knowledge base on this topic now includes a small but growing number of research studies, clinical reports, treatment books, and literature reviews (Holmes & Slap, 1998; Spiegel, 2003). Furthermore, in the spring of 2002, many adult men courageously disclosed childhood sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. Their stories of the devastating repercussions of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have garnered unprecedented nationwide attention regarding the sexual abuse of boys and men (Paulson & Kurkjian, 2002). Within the past 10 years, the professional literature has steadily evolved with respect to the sexual abuse of boys and men. The common denominator of this literature concerns accumulating indications that the dynamics and effects of sexual abuse are more profound than commonly believed and may be more complex and severe for boys Research on Social Work Practice, Vol. 13 No. x, Month 2003 1DOI: 10.1177/1049731504265836 © 2003 Sage Publications

and men than girls and women (see, e.g., Chandy, Blum, & Resnick, 1996; Garnefski & Arends, 1998). Dynamics refer to the physical, psychological, interpersonal, familial, and social forces that contextualize the sexually abusive relationship. Effects refer to the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral repercussions generated by these dynamics of sexual abuse (Spiegel, 2003). In spite of this emerging social awareness and knowledge base, in the most recent review of the literature, Holmes and Slap (1998) stressed that the sexual abuse of boys continues to be an “underreported, underrecognized, and undertreated” phenomenon (p. 1855). Measurement of personal and projected social attitudes about the abuse experience is notably lacking. No validated scale currently exists that addresses the gender-specific dynamics and effects attributed to the sexual abuse of boys and men. This pilot project addresses this gap in the literature by conducting an initial validation of a measure of myths associated with such abuse, emphasizing (a) respondents’ views of their own attitudes and (b) respondents’ projections of the views they believe to be present in their social environment.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE Within the CSA literature, there is virtually unanimous agreement that the most influential dynamic that differentiates the experience of boys and men from girls and women, and that subsequently produces the most 1

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deleterious effects, is the social mythology of sexual abuse on boys and men. Social myths associated with the sexual abuse of boys are derived from the mythology of masculinity. Some common myths include: (a) if the perpetrator is male, the boy must be gay; (b) if the perpetrator is female, then it can not be sexual abuse; (c) if a boy did not want to be sexually abused, he could have stopped it; and (d) sexually abused boys become perpetrators (Gartner, 1999; Hunter, 1990; Lisak, 1995; Spiegel, 2003). Although some may disagree with the authenticity of these social myths (Spiegel, 2003), it is hypothesized that the larger social environment accepts them. For example, although it is assumed that the link between a history of sexual abuse and adult perpetration is inevitable, the majority of sexually abused boys and men do not become perpetrators (Spiegel, 2003). Although sexual abuse perpetrators may report higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, among adolescent and adult male perpetrators rates of childhood sexual abuse across studies tend to be in the rate of 20% to 40% (Lambie, Seymour, Lee, & Adams, 2002). As such, social mythology permeates and transforms perceptions that the general and professional communities have toward the sexual abuse of boys and colors the lens through which boys and men ascribe meaning to their own sexual victimization (Lisak, 1995; Spiegel, 2003; Struve, 1990). Although social mythology’s instrumental role in the sexual abuse of boys and men is widely accepted, to date, validated measures of such attitudes do not exist. Presumed effects of CSA, on the other hand, are commonly measured with instruments that are not specific to sexual abuse, such as those for depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. A major criticism of such generic measures is that dependence on them disregards the observation that sexual abuse is a specific experience, not a generalized disorder (Finkelhor & Berliner, 1995). If sexual abuse produces particular effects that treatment is designed to address, then abuse-specific measures, in addition to generic measures, must be developed to fully capture the emotional, cognitive, and behavior repercussions of sexual abuse. In partial response to this concern, researchers have advanced the knowledge base of CSA through use of a multitude of sexual abuse–specific measures for children, adolescents, and adults. Some of these include the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1997), the Children’s Attributions and Perceptions Scale (Mannarino, Cohen, & Berman, 1994), and for adults, the Trauma Symptom Checklist (Briere & Runtz, 1989) and the Cognitions and Behaviors Scale (Fabelo-Alcover & Sowers, 2003)

Although these instruments move the field forward, gaps in the measurement literature specific to the sexual abuse of boys and men remain. Two significant deficiencies illustrate this observation. First, existing measures fail to capture concretely the common concerns boys and men with histories of sexual abuse are confronted with regarding social myths (e.g., the extent to which he believes he will become a homosexual as a result of the abuse). For example, the Cognitions and Behavior Scale (CABS; Fabelo-Alcover & Sowers, 2003) was validated on a sample of adult women with histories of CSA and was based on the traumagenic dynamics model of sexual abuse (Finkelhor & Browne, 1985), a conceptual framework based specifically on the sexual abuse of girls and women for understanding the connection between the reported effects of sexual abuse and the sexual abuse experience itself. Second, many abuse-specific measures do not address potential fears of nonoffending parents and caretakers, including anxiety stemming from the social myth that their abused son may become a sexual perpetrator. Perhaps the only instrument that comes close to measuring social myths related to abuse of boys and men is the Child Sexual Abuse Myth Scale (Collings, 1997). However, the scale is designed to measure general acceptance of child sexual abuse myths and stereotypes and is specific to boys and men on only one item, “Boys are more likely than girls to enjoy sexual contact with an adult and are therefore less likely to be emotionally traumatized by the experience” (Collings, 1997, p. 670). The current study represents an initial response to this identified gap through a pilot validation of a new measure of personal and projected social beliefs regarding the mythology associated with male sexual abuse.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF MALES PERCEPTIONS SCALE The 29 original scale items for the Sexual Abuse of Males Perceptions Scale (SAMPS) were primarily developed using data obtained via a systematic research synthesis (SRS; Rothman, Damron-Rodriquez, & Shenassa, 1994) of outcome studies on the sexual abuse of boys and men (Nalavany, 2002). From this SRS, social myths were conceptualized as rigid, stereotypical beliefs that obscured and invalidated the dynamics and effects of the sexual abuse of boys and men. Sexual abuse was defined as any sexualized contact imposed on a child younger than age 18 that occurred with a person who is considered an inappropriate partner because of an age differential,

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power differential, or physical, social, or developmental differences. Response options for SAMPS items were constructed to capture participants’ personal perceptions as well as their projections of social perceptions of sexual abuse myths. The 29 original items were scored on a 7point Likert-type response option scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The Flesh-Kincaid reading level of the original SAMPS items was 8.6.

behaviors or circumstances illustrates the risks associated with faulty attributions and myths. It was hypothesized that respondent’s would rate others more severely than themselves when considering the potential for adhering to social myths.

PERSONAL AND PROJECTED SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF BOYS AND MEN: GOALS AND HYPOTHESIS

The SRS also served as a foundation to initially identifying three possible underlying constructs or factors for the SAMPS. These are (a) attribution of blame (AB), (b) gender identity and implied sexual perpetration (GISP), and (c) denial of awareness and impact (DAI). Although these constructs are similar to Collings’ (1997) three factors (e.g., blame diffusion, restrictive stereotypes, and denial of abusiveness), they were distinctively developed to account for myths associated with the sexual abuse of boys and men. Factor 1, AB, was conceptualized as the process whereby boys and men are held responsible for the sexual abuse because of being perceived as active participants or for not having resisted the perpetrator’s advances. Factor 2, GISP, was conceptualized as rigid, stereotypical beliefs that shame boys’ and men’s sense of gender identity and portray boys and men as sexual offenders. Factor 3, DAI, was conceptualized as beliefs that disregard boys and men as potential victims of sexual abuse and minimize the harm of sexual abuse.

There are two primary measurement goals of the pilot project, the identification of personal perceptions and social perceptions. Personal perceptions are respondent’s views of their own attitudes toward the sexual abuse of boys and men. In contrast, social perceptions refer to respondents’ projections of the views they believe to be present in their social environment about the sexual abuse of boys and men. The rationale for measuring personal and social perceptions concerns participants responding to items in a socially desirable manner, yet goes much beyond this possibility. Social psychologists have extensively researched the phenomenon called the fundamental attribution error (Ross, 2001; Tetlock, 1985). As a component of attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error refers to a widespread, systematic bias in one person’s perceptions of another (Tetlock, 1985). The fundamental attribution error occurs when an observer of another person’s behavior overestimates and/or misjudges personality or behavior, and underemphasizes and disregards the influence of situational (or environmental) contexts on behavior (Tetlock, 1985). To be sure, this fundamental attribution error may play a vital role in victim blaming. Social myths are examples of the fundamental attribution error. To illustrate, some professionals are more inclined to blame sexual abuse on older boys or boys with stout physical characteristics than younger and less physically imposing boys (Kendall-Tackett & Watson, 1991). These people make prejudgments without considering the situational contexts (or dynamics) for the sexual abuse. For instance, perpetrators use threats, such as “If you tell anyone, your pet is dead” and manipulations, such as “If you tell anyone about what we did, every one will know that you are nothing but a wimp faggot” to render boys under their control and powerless (Spiegel, 2003). This failure to consider context when assigning meaning to observed

IDENTIFICATION AND DEFINITION OF PROPOSED CONSTRUCTS

METHOD Sample and Procedure

This pilot project study is based on a self-administered survey research design using a nonprobability, purposive sample of undergraduate students attending a university in the South. The researcher asked and secured permission to address five different classes of undergraduate students across several disciplines (i.e., business, psychology, social work, urban and regional planning, and education) to describe this study and request student participation. The researcher obtained informed consent by announcing that the survey was about their personal beliefs and projected beliefs of others about boys and men with sexual abuse histories. The researcher offered no knowledge or discussion about the sexual abuse of boys and men to minimize response bias. All participants read a detailed informed consent form. Participation was

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anonymous because no identifying information, such as their names, was collected. Approximately 377 students were addressed in these five classes and were given a survey packet. Of these, 358 returned survey packets (95% return rate); of those, 333 (93%) returned surveys with no missing data. Data Collection Instrument and Construct Validity Rationale and Description

In addition to the SAMPS, the questionnaire included demographic questions and one question each on adult male rape, homosexuality, and masculinity. Convergent construct validity assesses the extent to which a construct correlates (either positively or negatively) with theoretically pertinent constructs (Springer, Abell, & Hudson, 2002). Although it is most desirable to use existing standardized scales to analyze convergent construct validity, lack of funding for the present project made this impossible. To address this issue, three single-item indicators rated on a 10-point semantic differential scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) were developed to assess convergent construct validity. Because the three indicator items inquire about respondents’ personal perceptions rather than social perceptions, all subsequent convergent validation analyses were conducted for only the personal perceptions component of the SAMPS. The first question pertained to adult male rape myths and read, “An adult male should be able to defend himself from being sexually raped by another adult male.” Male rape is defined as any nonconsensual sexual act perpetrated against a man, 18 years or older, by a male or female (Kerr Melanson, 1999). Collings (1997) found that the CSA Myth Scale correlated highly with the Rape Myth Scale (Burt, 1980), with the Blame Diffusion subscale having the strongest correlation. This question was selected on the hypothesis that adult male rape myths would be correlated with the SAMPS global scale and subscales, particularly the AB (attribution of blame) subscale. The second question, “Homosexuality Does Not offend me” was partially developed in light of Kerr Melanson’s (1999) research. In multiple regression analyses, adherence to adult male rape myths was predicted by perceptions that homosexuality was offensive. Furthermore, many of the common social myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men are related to boys and men becoming homosexual if the perpetrator was male and/or even being homosexual before the onset of the abuse. Given this, it was hypothesized that this question would be correlated with the SAMPS, particularly the GISP

(gender identity and implied sexual perpetration) subscale. The third question, “Males Should Not show weaknesses,” was developed based on research on adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Richey-Suttles and Remer (1997) found that helping professionals who subscribe to more conservative or stereotypical views of masculinity, regardless of gender, are significantly more likely to blame boys and men for their experience of CSA, significantly less likely to identify sexual contact between a boy and an adult as sexual abuse, and significantly more likely to attribute responsibility to a boy who does not actively and physically resist the perpetrator’s advances. Kerr Melanson (1999) also noted that male rape myths were predicted by adherence to stereotypical beliefs of masculinity (i.e., defend self at all costs, refusal to show vulnerable emotions, etc.). From this, it was hypothesized that this question would also correlate positively with the SAMPS global scale and subscales, most significantly with the AB subscale and more strongly than the adult male rape single indicator question (defend self against rape). Discriminant construct validity is established when theoretically unrelated variables, which are hypothesized not to relate to the host scale, are found not to do so (Springer, Abell, & Hudson, 2002). Five variables are posited to correlate weakly with the SAMPS factors: discipline of study (social work, psychology, business, etc.), year in college (freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior), race/ethnicity, age, and gender. Discriminant validity analyses were conducted for the personal perceptions only. Finally, the data collection instrument also included a question inquiring about students’ recent (i.e., in the past year) awareness of the sexual abuse of boys and men either through books, journal articles, newspapers, television news segments, movies, or through other means. If students answered “yes” to this question, they were asked to write a brief statement about how the content affected them. This qualitative question will be analyzed in future investigations.

RESULTS Sample Characteristics

The average age of the sample of 333 students was 21.8 years (SD = 4.77). Regarding gender, 57.1% were women and 42.9% men. Most respondents identified themselves as White (78.4%), followed by African American (9.0%),

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Hispanic (6.9%), Asian Pacific (2.4%), American Indian (.6%) and the remaining as Other racial/ethnic backgrounds. The majority of the sample were university juniors (42.9%) followed by seniors (30.6%), sophomores (19.8%), and freshmen (6.0%). Urban and regional planning students represented 30.3% of the sample, followed by psychology, 25.8%, business, 27%, social work, 13.5%, and education, 3.3%. Content Validity

Content validity is commonly the first analysis undertaken in developing and validating scales. Content validity is an item-by-item analysis assessing the extent to which the items of a scale capture the definitions of their particular constructs (Springer, Abell, & Hudson, 2002). Eight professionals with knowledge of the sexual abuse of boys and men evaluated the items of the SAMPS with respect to their corresponding subscale domains. Five of these professionals had 8 or more years of direct practice experience with boys and men with sexual abuse histories. Each content expert was asked to rate the degree of fit between each original item of the SAMPS and the specific definition of the factor it was intended to reflect on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very well). They also provided feedback on the grammar, syntax, and sentence structure. Standard deviations and mean scores of item ratings across reviewers were analyzed to make determinations on whether the item should be retained or omitted. A mean cutoff score of 3.5 or less was used as the criterion to consider omitting an item, with 5.0 as the highest score possible. Collectively, the content panel experts identified two such items that were subsequently omitted from the original item pool. Goal of Reliability and Factorial Validity Analyses

Analyses were conducted in an effort to achieve the most parsimonious scale that is easy to interpret, score, and comparable in terms of scale structure and length for personal and social perceptions. Reliability. To assess the internal consistency of the original 27 items of the SAMPS, Cronbach’s alpha, or coefficient alpha, was calculated (DeVellis, 1991). For the SAMPS, weak items were identified based on the estimated “alpha if deleted” values obtained using SPSS software.

Alpha coefficients, based on the original 27-item pool, were obtained for personal and social perceptions, respectively, as follows: Global (total) scale (.9126, .9129), AB (.8469, .8261), GISP (.7935, .7947), and DAI (.7879, .7965). The assessment of weak items for personal and social perceptions yielded five items (one on the AB subscale and two each on the GISP and the DAI subscales) that were discarded. Assessment of weak items on the DAI subscale was complicated in that two items representing acceptable contributions to reliability for personal perceptions weakened reliability for social perceptions. These results were reviewed in conjunction with the confirmatory factor analysis (to be discussed below) before making final determinations for item retention for the various subscales. The final composition of the scale resulted in the 20 items depicted in Table 1. The estimated coefficient alpha values for the global scale and subscales for personal and social perceptions are depicted in Table 2. As reported in Table 1, the global scale alpha coefficients for personal and social perceptions are similar, .91 and .92, respectively. Two subscales on personal perceptions have alphas above .78, with the AB subscale at the highest alpha of .85. Further inspection shows that, for personal and projected social perceptions, the rank ordering of alphas (from highest to lowest) is the same. In addition to these obtained reliabilities, standard error of measurement (SEM) coefficients are shown for personal and social perceptions in Table 2. SEM provides an estimate, not a guarantee, of the standard deviation of measurement error, that is, how far the true score ranges from the observed score for a given subject in the population (Springer, Abell, & Nugent, 2002). All of the obtained subscales and the global scale SEM for personal and social perceptions exceeded a suggested threshold of 5% or less of the range of possible scores (Springer, Abell, & Nugent, 2002). However, the global SEM for personal and social perceptions exceeded this criterion by only .046 and .033, respectively. Factorial validity. As discussed previously, the SRS served as a foundation for identifying items and generating the three factors underscoring the social myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men. Because this process was intentional and guided by relevant literature, confirmatory factor analysis was selected as the method of choice for assessing the structure of relationships of the items related to the three hypothesized factors (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). The multiple group method was

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TABLE 1:

Sexual Abuse of Males Perception Scale: Final Items Per Subscale

Attribution of blame 1. If he accepts “gifts,” such as candy, toys, or money from the person who sexually abused him, then he really wanted it to happen. 2. If he experienced an erection or ejaculation during the abuse, then he was a more willing participant than if he did not experience this reaction. 3. If his abuse did not include physical force, then he should have stopped it. 4. The older he is when the sexual abuse begins, the more he should be able to stop it from happening. 5. If he did not let others know about his ongoing sexual abuse, he must have wanted it to continue. 6. If he passively went along with the abuse, then he wanted it to happen. 7. If physical force was used to sexually abuse him, he should have been able to stop it from happening. 8. If he did not want to be sexually abused, he could have stopped it. Gender identity and implied sexual perpetration 9. If the person who sexually abused him is male, then the sexually abused male must be gay. 10. If a male sexually abused him, a sexually abused male is likely to become gay. 11. If he was sexually abused, he must have been weakling or a sissy. 12. Males who have been sexually abused often become rapists. 13. If he has been sexually abused and is left alone with young children, he is likely to sexually abuse them. 14. If a male sexually abused him, it is likely that the sexually abused male was already gay. 15. Males who have been sexually abused are more likely to be less masculine than males who have not been sexually abused. Denial of awareness and impact 16. If he experiences sexual excitement, has an erection, or ejaculates during a sexual episode with a man, then he must have wanted it to happen, and it is not abuse. 17. If he became sexually excited during the abuse, then it really was not harmful. 18. If the adult who sexually abused him is a female, then he most likely wanted it to happen. 19. If the person who abused him was a woman, then it really was sex education, not sexual abuse. 20. If he experienced sexual excitement, and erection or ejaculation during a sexual episode with a man, then the experience cannot be considered “sexual abuse.”

utilized for this purpose, as it is commonly employed for its relative ease in determining the validity of the proposed factor structure (Springer, Abell, & Nugent, 2002). Factor loadings for personal and social perceptions are reported in Table 3. The data are organized to display correlations (Pearson’s r) of individual SAMPS items with subscale scores for each intended factor. The hypothesized three-factor structures of the SAMPS personal and social scales are confirmed to the extent that items correlate most highly with their respective factors. Mean itemtotal correlations for each subscale are also depicted.

Closer examination of column data for the personal perception subscale shows three weak subscale items, SAMPS 5, 11, and 19. SAMPS 11 and SAMPS 18 correlate more strongly on the AB subscale than its lowest intended item, SAMPS 5. Assessment of row data shows that the lowest intended item, SAMPS 11 correlates more strongly with either the AB or DAI subscales than its intended subscale, GISP. SAMPS 11 also correlates more strongly on the DAI subscale than the lowest intended item, SAMPS 19. The Social Perception scale has one genuine problem item, SAMPS 3, the lowest intended item on the AB subscale. The correlations of SAMPS 11, 18, and 20 exceed that of SAMPS 3. All of these problem items were retained as discarding them would have weakened the coefficient alphas for personal and social perceptions (see Table 2). Furthermore, an item content assessment did not seem to offer any compelling reason to move items to other subscales. Inspection of Table 3 reveals that a number of items, while loading most strongly where hypothesized, also correlate substantially with unintended subscale scores. The Pearson product–moment (PPM) correlation coefficients for personal and social perceptions, respectively, are as follows: AB and DAI (.738, .746), AB and GISP (.634, .689), and DAI and GISP (.578, .660). This confirms that in both cases, SAMPS subscales are meaningfully related to each other. Construct Validity

As recalled earlier, convergent construct validity occurs when a construct correlates as anticipated (positively or negatively) with theoretically relevant constructs (Springer, Abell, & Hudson, 2002). Correlating the global score and subscale scores for personal perceptions with the three indicator questions tested convergent construct validity. As depicted in Table 4, the PPM correlation coefficients and the coefficient of determination (r2) are in the expected direction. As anticipated, the AB subscale and adherence to stereotypical beliefs in masculinity accounted for more variance than the other indicator questions. Furthermore, GISP subscale scores correlated negatively with decreased of tolerance of homosexuality (please note that this was a negatively worded question). As for discriminant construct validity, as depicted in Table 4, the PPM correlation coefficients are significant for age and gender, although the r2 values are relatively small for age. Because of the high standard deviation of the ages of respondents, a Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA was also calculated for age, with no significance

Nalavany, Abell / A MEASURE OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS 7 TABLE 2:

SAMPS Subscale and Global Scale Reliabilities: Personal and Social Perceptions Gender Identity and Implied Sexual Perpetration

Attribution of Blame Alpha If Deleted Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Denial of Awareness and Impact

Alpha If Deleted

Alpha If Deleted

Personal

Social

Item

Personal

Social

Item

Personal

Social

.8423 .8269 .8289 .8318 .8433 .8335 .8229 .8250 a = .8503 SEM = .430

.8225 .8155 .8315 .8255 .8188 .8185 .8135 .8140 a = .8390 SEM = .466

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

.7806 .7479 .7682 .7510 .7527 .7516 .7273

.8053 .7793 .7774 .7902 .7676 .7842 .7661

16 17 18 19 20

.7656 .7515 .7710 .7689 .7430

.7979 .8002 .7997 .7952 .7716

a = .7817 SEM = .488

a = .8067 SEM = .505

a = .7983 SEM = .454

a = .8274 SEM = .552

NOTE: SAMPS = Sexual Abuse of Males Perceptions Scale; SEM = standard error of the measurement. Numbered items correspond to Table 1. Global Scale Alpha, Personal = .9109; Global Scale Alpha, Social = .9205; Global SEM, Personal = .281; Global SEM, Social = .300.

TABLE 3:

SAMPS Confirmatory Factor Loading: Correlations of Item Responses With Subscale Scores for Personal and Social Perceptions AB

Item AB 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mean GISP 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 M DAI 16 17 18 19 20 M

GISP

DAI

Personal Personal Personal

AB

GISP

DAI

Social

Social

Social

.612 .718 .757 .746 .600 .683 .760 .747 .703

.320 .485 .381 .435 .478 .522 .545 .476 .455

.444 .648 .455 .448 .548 .554 .539 .613 .531

.675 .713 .606 .645 .691 .695 .727 .729 .685

.388 .469 .260 .394 .588 .542 .572 .557 .471

.505 .641 .333 .362 .611 .556 .500 .573 .519

.357 .413 .662 .335 .283 .415 .514 .425

.585 .682 .568 .669 .656 .688 .770 .659

.362 .360 .716 .295 .228 .350 .420 .390

.366 .510 .649 .416 .419 .403 .557 .474

.626 .685 .703 .626 .737 .686 .744 .686

.426 .554 .627 .352 .393 .423 .473 .450

.556 .511 .651 .516 .503 .547

.383 .334 .506 .458 .473 .431

.753 .754 .741 .709 .776 .747

.548 .553 .633 .521 .615 .574

.517 .392 .558 .529 .539 .507

.758 .749 .751 .768 .819 .769

NOTE: SAMPS = Sexual Abuse of Males Perceptions Scale; AB = attribution of blame, GISP = gender identity and implied sexual perpetration, DAI = denial of awareness and impact. Numbered items correspond to Table 1. All correlations are significant at p < .01

found for the global- and subscale-ranked scores. Because of the disparate number of respondents in each of the categories of discipline of study, year in college,

and race/ethnicity, a Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA was also conducted (Siegel & Castellan, 1988). In sum, the personal global and subscales for the SAMPS exhibited significant differences for discipline of study and year in college but not for race/ethnicity. Therefore, preliminary evidence for the personal dimension indicates a need for further investigation of its construct validity. Personal Perceptions and Social Perceptions Hypothesis and Scoring

Secondary to psychometric analyses, the fundamental attribution error was discussed to illustrate the possible discrepancy between a respondent’s personal perceptions and social perceptions—or myths—about the sexual abuse of boys and men. To test this hypothesis, a paired samples t test was performed between the global means for personal and social perceptions. Results of this analysis were found to be significant, t(332) = –20.035, p = .00, indicating that respondents were more likely to rate others as adhering to the myths. Global and subscale scores for personal and social perceptions are determined by comparison of the mean scores obtained by dividing the sum by the number of items. No reverse scoring was necessary for this purpose. A mean score above the mean criterion represented greater adherence to the myths. The means and standard deviations were obtained as follows: for personal perceptions, global (total) scale (M = 2.5, SD = .94), AB (M = 2.7, SD = 1.1), GISP (M = 2.6, SD = 1.0), and DAI (M = 2.0, SD = 1.0); and for social perceptions, Global (total scale) (M = 3.9, SD = 1.1), AB (M = 4.0, SD = 1.1), GISP (M = 4.1, SD = 1.2), and DAI (M = 3.5, SD = 1.3).

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TABLE 4:

SAM Myth Scale Construct Validity: Correlations of Convergent and Discriminant Indicators with Personal Perceptions Subscales and Global Gender Identity and Implied Sexual Perpetration

Attribution of Blame

Single-item convergent variables a Male rape a Perception of homosexuality a Gender rigidity (masculinity) Mean Discriminant variables a Age a Gender Mean

r

r

w4r

.409** –.270** .515**

.17 .07 .27 .17

.251** –.331** .361**

.06 .11 .13 .10

–.193** –.344**

.04 .12 .08

–.114* –.193**

.01 .04 .025

–.118* .01 –.261**.07 .04 c

2

Discipline b College b Race b Age

b

2

2

2

Denial of Awareness and Impact

r

c

df

c

df

74.471** 25.811** 2.428 35.015

4 3 5 23

22.889** 7.256 4.716 22.676

4 3 5 23

w4r

Global w4r

r

263** .07 –.258** .06 426** .18 .10

.364** –.327** .502**

.13 .11 .25 .16

–.168** –.310**

.03 .10 .065

2

df

58.925** 21.788** 4.659 28.995

4 3 5 23

2

50.087** 23.358** 5.259 21.517

2

r

df 4 3 5 23

c

2

NOTE: SAM = sexual abuse of males. a. Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient. b. Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA for K independent sample. *p £ .05. **p £.01.

DISCUSSION AND APPLICATIONS TO SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE The SAMPS was designed to assess whether beliefs— or myths—of the sexual abuse of boys and men could be reliably and validly measured. It was proposed that the SAMPS would measure myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men as a three-subscale instrument across two dimensions: personal and social. The data revealed substantial intercorrelations of the personal and the social dimension SAMPS subscale scores. However, given that the confirmatory factorial validity hypotheses were substantially met, and that the subscale reliabilities were all sufficient when recommended items were retained, the authors concluded that, for purposes of the initial validation, the hypothesized factor structure should be retained. As for reliability, even though coefficient alpha values are sensitive to the number of items in a scale, the global alphas (which both exceed 0.90) seemed to be the most reliable measure of belief in the myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men. Consequently, a more conservative use of the current version of the SAMPS would be as a pair of unidimensional (personal and social) indicators for group research or clinical applications. Although the reliabilities for two of the subscales for personal perceptions (e.g., GISP, .78, and DAI, .79) were just below the

minimum recommended standard of 0.80 for clinical applications and raise concerns for such use, these reliabilities must be interpreted in context of constructs similar to the myths associated with the sexual abuse of boys and men. For instance, Collings (1997) reported the global scale reliability for Child Sexual Abuse Myth Scale to be .764 (the subscale reliabilities were not reported), which is significantly below the SAMPS’ global scale reliabilities. Davies and McCartney (2003) investigated the effects of gender and sexuality on victim blame and male rape myth acceptance in the alleged rape of a homosexual man. Using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, three factors were extracted from the survey questionnaire, one of which was called male rape myths. The six items constituting this factor were similar in meaning to the SAMPS subscale items (e.g., “Chris could have fought Bob off.” “Chris could have done something to prevent the attack if he really wanted to” “A man who rapes another man must be homosexual,” p. 395). This subscale showed a Cronbach’s alpha of .77, which is nearly identical to the lowest subscale reliability for SAMPS. In light of these reliability coefficients and considering the absence of measures specifically focused on myths associated with male sexual abuse, judicious clinical use of the current version of the SAMPS subscales seems warranted,

Nalavany, Abell / A MEASURE OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS 9

particularly when used in conjunction with other clinical indicators. Although the data for the convergent construct validity results on the personal dimension of the SAMPS were obtained as hypothesized, the correlations were not strong for all subscales, particularly for the homosexuality indicator question. Single-item indicators were limited, as they may not have afforded respondents the option of capturing a more accurate estimate of their perceptions. In addition, the discriminant validity hypotheses for the personal dimension did not perform as expected. Although this calls into question the construct validity of the SAMPS, one possible explanation is misspecification of discriminant hypotheses that were, in retrospect, based on misinterpretation of research results regarding gender and discipline. For instance, Spencer and Tan (1999) found that in comparison to adult women, adult men are more likely to attribute more responsibility for the abuse on the boy’s personality and behavior and, correspondingly, less responsibility to the perpetrator. In addition, Spencer and Tan found adult men and adult women are more likely to perceive older boys with CSA histories as less masculine than younger boys. Moreover, Richey-Suttles and Remer (1997) found that regardless of gender, helping professionals of various disciplines who subscribed to more stereotypical views of masculinity were more likely to blame boys for sexual abuse or minimize their experience. In hindsight, this information might have been better used to hypothesize that gender or discipline of study of respondents would (rather than would not) correlate or be statistically significant with SAMPS scores. It also is possible that students majoring in helping disciplines may be less likely to endorse traditional gender roles and receive more information on child sexual abuse than those majoring in other disciplines. It is not known to what extent, if at all, the sexual abuse of boys is addressed across bachelor-level social work, psychology, or mental health classes. Nevertheless, results obtained from this sample add to our understanding about the sexual abuse of boys’ and men’s knowledge base that is still in its developmental stage. Future investigations can examine the influence these variables have on people’s adherence to the myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men. A further weakness of this study was the practical goal of developing a scale with the same items per subscale so analyses and interpretations would not be complicated. Had the intention been to develop two separate scales, the final item pool and subscales may have been somewhat different. Nevertheless, achieving this goal seemed to outweigh the negatives, as this was a pilot study

attempting to measure a construct that has not been given attention in the psychometric literature. Future investigations may improve on these shortcomings by, for example, using standardized scales to assess convergent and discriminant construct validity. To address the sample limitations, a more representative clinical sample is imperative; specifically, one including boys and men with histories of sexual abuse and their caretakers/family members of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Finally, criterion validity (i.e., based on known groups) of the SAMPS remains to be investigated. Despite the limitations noted above and the need for further psychometric validation, the SAMPS has a variety of potential implications within social work and other helping professions in regard to training, research, and practice. As the field progresses in developing child welfare courses and other training interventions for professionals addressing treatment issues with children and adolescents, the SAMPS might be developed as a pre- and postmeasure to assess the extent to which students and professionals adhere to the myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men. Several recent studies have explicitly shown that young boys’ treatment needs are either responded to with treatment of significantly lesser quality than that provided for their female counterparts or are ignored (see, e.g., Dersch & Munsch, 1999; Douglas, Coghill, & Will, 1996; Little & Hamby, 1999; Randall, Parrila, & Sobsey, 2000). It may be that professionals who subscribe to the myths of the sexual abuse of boys and men provide treatment services to boys and men that are of a lesser quality and are gender insensitive. This concern could be investigated using the SAMPS. As for research, the SAMPS could be used in outcome studies with boys and men, as the current abuse-specific and generic measures fail to capture the myths associated with the sexual abuse of boys and men. A recent advance in group intervention research with children, adolescents, and their families suggests that an abuse-specific, cognitive-behavior treatment model is a promising treatment intervention (Cohen & Mannarino, 1998; King et al., 2000). If such treatment is designed to address cognitive misconceptions as an effect of sexual abuse, the SAMPS could possibly tap into the specific deleterious beliefs (i.e., myths) boys and men and their families are often confronted with. In this event, researchers would be using a scale that is more harmonious with the theory of treatment and is gender sensitive. Finally, the most significant use of the SAMPS is for helping professionals who intervene with boys and men with CSA histories and their families in clinical practice. The SAMPS could be used for assessment, treatment

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planning, and evaluation purposes. The social myths and the impact they have on boys and men with sexual abuse histories are compelling. They serve as the reference point to which boys and men respond and that ultimately shapes their coping with sexual abuse, often with devastating consequences (Spiegel, 2003). The SAMPS could help boys and men (and family members) identify the myths that are contributing to anger, confusion, embarrassment, and shame. Ultimately, invalidation of these myths can lead to personal and social liberation from flawed conceptualizations of the experiences of CSA.

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