Purity Culture: Measurement and Relationship to Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance

Abstract

Though discussed extensively in popular culture, purity culture, a conservative Christian movement that builds on traditional sexual ethics by proscribing additional rules and regulations to govern sexual behaviors and prioritize virginity, has scarcely been examined from a psychological perspective. The present study was designed to develop and validate a measure of purity culture, the Purity Culture Beliefs Scale (PCBS). We explore and confirm the factor structure of the PCBS and establish convergent and discriminant validity. We also demonstrate the utility of the scale showing incremental validity in the prediction of domestic violence myth acceptance. Convergent validity was established between purity culture and heterosexual scripts, sexual–spiritual integration, and shame. Discriminant validity was established between purity culture and manifestation of God in sexuality, sacred qualities of sexuality, Christian orthodoxy, and affect. The PCBS was also used to find that purity culture beliefs predicted domestic violence myth acceptance above and beyond the constructs of hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and traditional sex roles. The introduction of the PCBS allows for the empirical study of the internalization and consequences of purity culture, which may inform interventions around Christian engagement with the topics of gender and sexuality.