Prevalence and Correlates of Sexual Harassment in Australian Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The aims of the current study were to provide the first Australian prevalence estimates of sexual harassment in adolescents, explore gender differences in form and frequency of harassment, and investigate demographic and weight status correlates. A total of 4098 adolescents (47.3% boys), aged 11 to 19 years from government and non-government secondary schools completed demographic questions, self-reported weight and height, and a modified Association of American University Women Sexual Harassment Survey. Overall, 42.5% of boys and 40.0% of girls reported some forms of sexual harassment in the previous school term. A significant gender difference was found in overall frequency of sexual harassment but not in prevalence. Six of the nine forms of sexual harassment were more likely and more frequently to have been experienced by boys compared to girls. In conclusion, sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in Australian high schools and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with specifically.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual harassment
• adolescents
• prevalence
• students
• school

Disclosure statement

Professor Hay receives sessional fees and lecture fees from the Australian Medical Council, Therapeutic Guidelines publication, and New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry and royalties from Hogrefe and Huber, McGraw Hill Education, and Blackwell Scientific Publications, and she has received research grants from the NHMRC and ARC. She is Chair of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration Steering Committee in Australia (2019-) and Member of the ICD-11 Working Group for Eating Disorders (2012–2018) and was Chair Clinical Practice Guidelines Project Working Group (Eating Disorders) of RANZCP (2012–2015). She has prepared a report under contract for Shire Pharmaceuticals (July 2017) and honoraria for training of Psychiatrists. All views in this paper are her own.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship received by Dr Mitchison [grant numbers N/A].

Notes on contributors

Xiaojing Lei

Xiaojing Lei has completed her Bachelor degree of Psychology (Honours) in 2018 from  Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and her thesis was about "Elucidating the Roles of Sexual Harassment and Self Objectification in the Development of Body Image Disturbance in Adolescence"

Kay Bussey

Kay Bussey, After studying Developmental and Clinical Psychology at the University of Queensland and the University of Oregon (USA) received a PhD from the University of Queensland. She then undertook a Postdoctoral Fellowship under the supervision of Professor Bandura at Stanford University, USA. On returning to Australia, Kay accepted an academic appointment at Macquarie University. She has continued her collaboration with Professor Bandura as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and on frequent informal visits. Research interests Kay's research covers applied and clinically relevant topics involving children and adolescents. The empirical research draws on a range of methodologies including questionnaires, experimental methods, and vignettes and is theoretically guided by Bandura’s social cognitive theory which considers both social and personal factors involved in human agency.

Phillipa Hay

Phillipa Hay is an academic psychiatrist who is recognised internationally for her expertise in reducing the personal and public health burden of eating disorders and obesity. She has over 200 peer reviewed publications, written and co-edited several books, and has won several awards, notably the 2015 Australian and New Zealand Academy Lifetime Achievement award. In 2013 she was elected Fellow of the international Academy for Eating Disorders. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the first online journal in her research area Journal of Eating Disorders. (opens in new window)Opens in a new window She is a past-President of the Australian Academy for Eating Disorders.

Professor Hay is committed to research that results in a better understanding of eating disorders to reduce the individual, family and community burden. Her current research focuses on randomised controlled trials of interventions for anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, as well as public health and community interventions that will reduce barriers to accessing care. She led the working group for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists national guidelines for eating disorder treatments. Other studies have explored the diagnostic status of disordered eating behaviours and eating disorder mental health literacy in the community, clinical and professional samples. She is a principal reviewer and writer of systematic reviews internationally in the field of eating disorders for the highly regarded Cochrane Library and Clinical Evidence. This work led to selection of a review for publication in the British Medical Journal. She has also received recognition through being invited to submit articles and commentaries to Australasian and International journals, publications and books.

Jonathan Mond

Jonathan Mond is currently Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Rural Health at the University of Tasmania. He has previously held Associate Professorships in Psychology, Sociology, Medicine and Health Sciences at various Australian Universities and from 2013-2016 was Director of the Master of Professional Psychology Program at Macquarie University. Jon has Honours and Master’s Degrees in Psychology and a PhD in Psychological Medicine, all from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. To date, Jon’s research has focused on epidemiological and public health aspects of body weight, body dissatisfaction and eating-disordered behaviour. This research is widely cited (h index = 44, i10 index = 100, citations ≈ 6200, as of December 2017).  In 2013, Dr Mond was elected a Fellow of the Academic of Eating Disorders in recognition of his contribution to the field. More recently, Dr Mond has worked on various community-based mental health and rural health projects, including research addressing the health and well-being of refugees resettled in Tasmania.

Nora Trompeter

Nora Trompeter is a PhD candidate in Psychology at the Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is interested in youth mental health issues, especially relating to emotion dysregulation, body image, and anxiety.

Alexandra Lonergan

Alexandra Lonergan, B.A (Anthropology); B.SocSci(Psych)(Hons); M.ClinPsych (candidate); PhD (candidate) is a Provisional Psychologist undertaking a Masters of Clinical of Psychology and PhD at Macquarie University. Her clinical and research interests are in the diverse experience and expression of eating, body image, and weight disturbances. Her PhD forms part of the EveryBody Study, which aims to identify risk factors for eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and obesity in young people in order to develop inclusive, evidence-based prevention programs.

Deborah Mitchison

Deborah Mitchison is a researcher and a clinical psychologist, specialising in eating and body image disorders. Her research is directed at reducing the burden of eating disorders and associated body image problems within the population. She currently makes progress toward this aim by leading two programs of research.The first is the study of eating disorder epidemiology, including the prevalence, burden, course, health service utilisation and risk factors associated with eating and body image disorders. This research applies survey methods to large population-based samples and cohorts.The second is the study of treatment-seeking and health service use among people with eating disorders. This research makes use of a clinical database that pools client information from eating disorder treatment centres around Australia, as well as population-based survey methods to study facilitators and barriers to treatment-seeking.These two arms of research converge to highlight the disconnect between the characteristics of people who experience eating disorders at a population level versus people who gain access to treatment for an eating disorder. Ultimately this will lead to applied research to close the treatment gap for people with eating disorders.