Sexual harassment of college students: implications for campus health promotion

Association Between Sexual Harassment Intervention Strategies and the Sexual Harassment Perception and Attitude of University Students in Beijing, China

Sexual harassment in universities harms the physical and psychological health and development of students. Although Chinese universities are required to implement sexual harassment interventions, few studies have estimated how well interventions are perceived by students and the association with their perceptions and attitudes toward sexual harassment. This study aims to examine the perceptions and attitudes toward sexual harassment and perceived sexual harassment interventions among university students. Further, it evaluated the association between sexual harassment interventions and sexual harassment perceptions and attitudes among university students and explored potential gender differences in the observed associations. We categorized sexual harassment interventions into three types of strategies (informal education activities, prevention mechanisms, and multiformat publicity) and designed an 8-item scale for sexual harassment perception and a 10-item scale for sexual harassment attitude. A total of 872 students were recruited from six universities in Beijing, China. Association between intervention strategies and sexual harassment perceptions and attitudes was analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that 78.56% of the university students recognized all sexual harassment behaviors, and 11.58% felt angry about all sexual harassment behaviors. Male students felt angrier at same-sex harassment than female students (p < .001). Overall, the students were aware of approximately 3 of the 13 sexual harassment interventions. None of the three intervention strategies was significantly associated with perceptions of sexual harassment (p > .050). The attitude toward sexual harassment was positively associated with informal education activities (coeff = 0.055, p = .015) and multiformat publicity (coeff = 0.077, p = .030) among female students, and negatively associated with prevention mechanisms (coeff = -0.123, p = .033) among male students. Our findings imply that sexual harassment interventions are not well known among university students. Universities should develop and propagate more sexual harassment informal education activities and multiformat publicity intervention strategies and pay more attention to gender differences in intervention strategies.

Sexual Harassment: Perceptions and Experiences of Students at the University of Transkei

The present study investigated students' perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment at the University of Transkei. Data were obtained from a sample of 827 students. It was found that students need more clarity on what constitutes sexual harassment. However, it was found that all forms of sexual harassment were prevalent and experienced on campus in varying degrees. Gender-related differences were found in the perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment.

Sex and power in the academy: modeling sexual harassment in the lives of college women

The authors build an integrated model of the process by which academic sexual harassment undermines women's well-being; also examined is harasser power as a potential moderator of this process. Data from 1,455 college women suggest that sexual harassment experiences are associated with increased psychological distress, which then relates to lower academic satisfaction, greater physical illness, and greater disordered eating. The cumulative effect is greater disengagement from the academic environment, which in turn relates to performance decline (i.e., lower grades). Regardless of how frequently the harassment occurred, academic satisfaction was lower when the harassment came from higher-status individuals (i.e., faculty, staff, or administrators). At the same time, harassment was equally detrimental to mental health, regardless of who perpetrated it. The article concludes with implications for theory, research, and intervention.

Antecedents of sexual victimization: factors discriminating victims from nonvictims

A sexual victimization survey was used to assess the factors that would discriminate between victims and nonvictims of sexual assault. The sample consisted of 241 female college students at a large midwestern university. Victimization status was ascertained from the 13-question Sexual Experiences Survey developed by Koss and Gidycz and Koss and Oros. Data eliciting information about possible associated factors (demographics, dating history, sexual history, personality characteristics and traits) and victimization status were obtained by adapting several scales and instruments into a single Dating and Relationship Survey. Of the 241 women, 102 reported they had been victimized. Discriminant function analysis was used to develop a set of variables that significantly identified victimization status. The variables found to be related to women's being sexually victimized were (a) number of different lifetime sexual partners, (b) provocative dress, and (c) alcohol use.