“Hija Ako” : The Influence of the Roman Catholic Church on Rape Myths Acceptance of Catholic Young Adults

Abstract

The study conducted aimed at identifying how Roman Catholic teachings affect rape myths acceptance among Roman Catholic youths. Specifically, the study aimed to answer the following questions: a) How does the Catholic Church’s teachings affect Catholics’ perception of women?, (b) How are the perceptions of Catholic youths towards women affect their tendency to accept rape myths? (c) What rape myths are commonly accepted by Catholics?, (d) What factors related to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church influence the acceptance of rape myths? (e) How do the factors related to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church influence the acceptance of rape myths? The working hypothesis in conducting this study was that the Roman Catholic Church has significant influence over rape myths acceptance among its younger population due to the conservatism associated with the religion. Included in this working assumption is that the prescriptions of the Church relating to the clothing and conduct of women contributes to the tendency of Roman Catholic youths to accept certain rape myths. In conducting this research, the study made use of mixed methods in the form of a survey questionnaire, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. For the questionnaire, both the questions and scale were based on the Centrality of Religiosity Scale constructed by Huber and Huber. The researchers incorporated minor changes in the CRS-scoring and grouping. From having three groups composed of a “not-so religious” group, “religious” group, and “highly 62 religious” group, the researchers trimmed them down into two composed of a “not-so religious” group and a “religious” group. The CRS-score range for the groups were also adjusted accordingly. For the FGDs and interviews, the questions were guided by the objectives of the study which are: (1) To discuss briefly the changes in the Catholic Church’s perception of women; (2) To explain how the Catholic Church’s teachings affects the perception of women of young adult Catholics; (3) To discuss rape myths that are commonly acccepted among Catholic young adults; and (4) To discuss what and how factors related to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church influence rape myths acceptance among Catholic young adults.