PSYCHIATRIC-NURSES ATTITUDES TOWARD SEXUALITY, SEXUAL ASSAULT RAPE, AND INCEST/

This descriptive, exploratory study examined psychiatric nurses' attit udes towards sexuality, sexual assault/rape, and incest, and explored the relationships between these attitudes and the personal characteris tics of the nurse. Contrary to previous research on nurses in nonpsych iatric settings, the nurses in this Canadian study had favorable attit udes towards sexuality and did not subscribe to attitudes of victim bl aming in sexual assault/rape and incest. The strongest predictor of at titudes was age of the nurse (p < .02); cultural/ethnic background may also be associated with attitudes (p < .02), The results indicate a n eed to develop more precise measures of attitude for psychiatric nurse s. (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company