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Although both the military and fraternities have been theorized to be characterized by

norms and attitudes that serve to legitimize violence against women, no previous work has

examined the potential similarity and differences in rape-supportive beliefs of these 2

environments or the people drawn to them. Further, the belief systems of women within

these organizations have received little attention. As such, the current study sought to serve

as an initial exploration of the rape-supportive belief systems of people drawn to these

groups. Participants were recruited from students entering 2 military service academies

(U.S. Military Academy, n 1,169, 1,003 men, 166 …

This study used narrative inquiry to understand what spirituality

and religiosity meant to Hispanic students attending a large,

Midwestern university in the United States. The study consisted

of interviews with 10 Hispanic students who discussed their

spiritual and religious beliefs from childhood through college.

Findings supported current literature that spirituality increases

and religiosity decreases during college. However, after an

initial decline in religiosity during the first year of college,

participants reported a noteworthy increase shortly after

college began. Secondly, students’ spiritual and religious beliefs

were closely tied to their family, supporting research on familial

centrality in Hispanic culture.

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