Sex Trafficking Awareness

Research on U.S. knowledge of sex trafficking has focused on specific populations (e.g., health care providers, counselors, university students), and the only broad measure published to date is the Sex Trafficking Attitudes Scale (STAS). This social action study was designed to (1) revise the STAS, (2) assess knowledge of sex trafficking in a more general U.S. population, and (3) educate participants. When participants agree with a true item, they receive a response such as “You’re right,” or “That’s correct;” participants who disagree or answer “don’t know” to a true statement receive corrective information in response (and v.v. for false items). Participants were recruited through the Social Psychology Network, social media, Mechanical Turk (mTurk), and psychology courses at a small, private, liberal arts university. Participants ranged from 18 to 68 years of age, predominantly identified as female, White, and not college students. Classical item analysis, scale analysis, and CFAs were used to determine which questionnaire items to keep for a refined STAS-R/RE and to identify scale structure. Items worded in a negative direction were reverse-coded, so higher scores indicate higher agreement with accurate statements. Participants performed well overall, showing good knowledge of sex trafficking. They also reported that their emotions were impacted by the questionnaire and that they learned from it. Hypotheses of a four-factor scale structure, that students would know more than others, participants with minoritized racial/ethnic identities would know more than more privileged participants, and participants would know less about myths than other questions were not supported. However, an unexpected finding that males knew less than other participants surfaced, and a revised STAS-R/RE with 25 questions, solid reliability, a unique ability to educate participants, and two subscales was developed that can be used in future research. This is the raw data from the study.