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Sexual harassment behaviors, management strategies, and power-dependence relationships among a female graduate student population

The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) To measure the relationship between female graduate students' perceptions of dependence upon faculty members and the types of sexual harassment experienced and the types of management strategies employed to deal with the harassment, and 2) to collect descriptive data on sexual harassment of females in graduate school.The population consisted of 1400 female graduate students selected at random from four Indiana universities. A 15 item questionnaire containing questions pertaining to sexual harassment experiences, power-dependence relationships, management strategies, and attitudes toward sexual harassment was utilized. Two null hypotheses were tested using the computer program MULTIQUAL: Log Linear Analysis of Nominal or Ordinal Data by the Method of Maximum Likelihood.A total of 729 participants (52%) returned the questionnaire. Of those questionnaires returned, 1.14 (15.6%) reported some form of sexual harassment. Based on questionnaire items designed to measure the dependence of students upon faculty, respondents were assigned to one of two levels of dependence, considerable or slight.No significant differences were found in the interaction between the levels of dependence and the types of sexual harassment experienced by respondents. Also, the interaction between the levels of dependence and the management strategies used to deal with the harassment was not found to be significant.An examination of the differences in percentage response (or main effects) indicated that significant differences existed between the levels of dependence, and among the frequencies of occurrence of the types of sexual harassment and the types of management strategies reported. These findings suggested that:1. Female graduate students in relationships of considerable dependence experienced sexual harassment in significantly greater numbers than students in relationships of slight dependence (78.5% versus 21.5%).2. The types of sexual harassment most frequently experienced were: Anti-female remarks, leering and ogling (56.1%); requests for sexual activity (23.4%); and touching (20.6%).3. The management strategies most frequently reported were: Ignoring (43%); withdrawal or avoidance (37.4%); and refusing requests with or without explanation (19.6%).

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180566
Date January 1983
CreatorsScott, Deborah Deprez
ContributorsBaumann, Karen S.
Source SetsBall State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Formatvii, 95 leaves ; 28 cm.
SourceVirtual Press
Coveragen-us-in

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