NCJ Number
177918
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 14 Issue: 6 Dated: June 1999 Pages: 626-641
Date Published
1999
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article presents the methodology and findings of a study that examined the roles of gender, power, and relationship in peer sexual harassment for 342 urban high school students.
Abstract
"Sexual harassment" is defined to include "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature by another student, a school employee, or by a third party that is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to limit a student's ability to participate in or benefit from an education program or activity, or to create a hostile or abusive educational environment." A nonprobability sample of 342 students in a large, midwestern, urban high school completed a voluntary survey during a required English class. The study measured peer sexual harassment; power (culturally based power derived from beliefs about the dominance of men and personal power experienced as confidence in one's ability to wield influence); and the relationship between perpetrator and victim. Overall, 87 percent of girls and 79 percent of boys reported experiencing peer sexual harassment; and 77 percent of girls and 72 percent of boys reported sexually harassing their peers during the school year. Girls experienced the more overtly sexual forms of harassment more often than boys, and boys perpetrated sexual harassing behaviors more often than girls. Hypotheses of a relationship between power, gender, and the perpetration of peer sexual harassment are supported. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 45 references