Human Trafficking Myths as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Ambivalent Sexism and Sex Trafficking Attitudes Among Undergraduate, Medical, and Public Health Students

ABSTRACT

Although the extant body of research has established how the presence of human trafficking myths impact attitudes about sex trafficking survivors, few standardized sex trafficking curricula exists for undergraduate students and undergraduate medical students. The current study used a sample of 414 undergraduate, public health, and medical students from three large public universities in the midwestern United States to explore the relationship between ambivalent sexism, human trafficking myths, personal comfort with sexuality, and sex trafficking attitudes. The findings of our mediated moderated path analysis indicated that the path between hostile sexism and three sex trafficking attitudes subscales were mediated by human trafficking myths. Personal comfort with sexuality was also significantly and positively associated with sex trafficking attitude subscales. Based on these findings, it may behoove undergraduate programs and undergraduate medical programs to increase students' personal comfort in discussing sexualitybased content and include sex trafficking information into existing curricula.

KEYWORDS:

• Human trafficking myths
• sex trafficking
• ambivalent sexism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by a Faculty Scholarship Initiative (FSI) Grant by the Cleveland State University.