Increasingly in the past ten years, policy, public health, and criminal justice attention has been focused on sexual harassment in schools including physical abuse, psychological and emotional abuse, and sexual abuse involving controlling behavior and causing harm. Many adolescents experience sexual harassment behavior and the prevention of this behavior is important because adolescent victims have higher risks to get involved in suicidal thoughts and negative outcomes. This research paper reviews the different information found in several academic journals about sexual harassment, bullying, and teen dating violence at schools. The articles introduce different studies and results about sexual harassment patterns and their behaviors. The studies are mostly from seventh to tenth-grade students among different races and gender. The findings allowed me to identify different recommendations for community members such as administrators or teachers, students for schools and high schools, and parents.
Review of Literature
Patterns of Bullying and Sexual Harassment
The article examines the patterns of bullying and sexual harassment victimization and perpetration among public school students. It highlights the importance of considering both involvement in bullying and sexual harassment simultaneously, and the variety of internalizing, externalizing, and health-risk behaviors related to them. The study suggests that both co-occur and being either a victim or a perpetrator is associated with poor mental health outcomes such as self-harm and depression (Gower et al., 2017). Researchers have started to examine the links between these two forms of harassment, although they have separate theoretical literature.
Bullying perpetration increased in violence, theft, and drinking and bullying victimization relates to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thinking. There are different types of bullying such as physical, relational, and cyberbullying, and people who engage in both perpetration and victimization tend to have internalizing symptoms such as feeling sad, lonely, afraid, or nervous and externalizing behavior such as using physical aggression, disobeying rules, or cheating. Physical development, sexuality, and the beginning to explore romantic relationships have a correlation with sexual harassment. During adolescence, students would perpetrate sexual harassment by asserting male dominance and demanding those who do not stick to the “hetero norm” role (Gower et al., 2017).
The qualitative study suggests an 18-month developmental pathway between bullying, which appears in middle school and then decreases over high school years, and sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment perpetration emerges in middle school and it can lead to sexual violence later in high school. In addition, adolescents who have a close and good relationship with their family and school members are less likely to be involved in bullying or sexual harassment. According to Gower, McMorris & Borowski, having positive communication and good parental involvement and support has a protective factor against both bullying victimization and perpetration. Studies demonstrated that friendships could reduce the risk of involvement in these patterns. However, a poor relationship with a caregiver with low emotional and social support relates to distressing experiences of sexual harassment (Gower et al., 2017).
The article also shows how gender and grade relate to these patterns. For example, some results indicate that more than two-thirds of the students in the relational bullying victimization pattern were female. In contrast, over two-thirds of the students in the physical bullying perpetration pattern were male and those were more likely to be in 8th grade. Moreover, more than two-thirds of the students in the sexual harassment victimization and perpetration pattern were male students and were more likely to be in 9th or 11th grade.
Research shows that bullying supervision and policies continue to be not strict enough and still unclear. On the other hand, teachers reported that schools with specific definitions and understandable policies against sexual harassment felt empowered to intervene and get more effective results.
Middle School Sexual Harassment, Violence, and Social Networks
There is an increase in research on sexual harassment in schools including psychological and emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. This study is qualitative research, where the data is categorized based on individual covariates, social network characteristics, sexual and physical violence, and sexual harassment perpetration and victimization data. A nationally representative survey of students in 7th to 11th grade shows that 56%of girls and 40% of boys have experienced sexual harassment and almost the 90% of those it had a negative effect on them. The social network theory suggests that the structure and the characteristics of the peer network could predict behavioral patterns (Okamoto et al., 2013). For instance, individuals who have experienced violent and aggressive behaviors might be more likely to adopt these types of behaviors themselves. The research suggests that there is a level of social contagion in aggressive behavior around peers and it shows that students tend to be friends with peers that have a similar aggressive tendency. In addition, the study hypnotizes that larger networks and higher density could be a protective factor in relation to reporting sexual harassment or bullying victimization or perpetration cases. These types of networks facilitate the sharing of attitudes and behaviors. The social network study reveals that half of the adolescents in 7th and 8th grades report sexual harassment and physical violence victimization. One in five students reported that they sexually harassed peers and two out of five students announced perpetrated peer physical violence (Okamoto et al.,2013).
The longitudinal research finds that victimization predicts aggressive behaviors over time and that behavioral patterns usually continue existing in a certain behavioral manner such as sexual harassment or physical violence.
Dating Violence & Sexual Harassment
According to Eseplage and Holt, students involved in bullying or sexual harassment experience more anxiety and depression than students who have no relation to aggression. The research identifies that bully-victims are at the greatest risk for dating violence and peer sexual harassment victimization (Eseplage & Holt, 2007).
The cluster analysis shows four different bully-victim groups such as uninvolved, children who have no significant history as aggressors or victims; bullies, those who frequently bully others but never victims; bully-victims, children who bully others but also are victimized themselves; and victims, children who are victimized but do not report aggression against others. Research suggests that childhood aggression is one of the best-known social predictors of future maladjustment. Those involved in aggressive acts either as bullies or as victims have a higher risk of developing future serious social, emotional, and academic problems. Bully victims are the group with the greatest risk for social maladjustment. The study reported that bully victims tend to report more anxiety and depression than their peers do, and they are the group with the most rejection.
Surveys reveal that sexual harassment is extending among youth. For example, eight in ten students had experienced sexual harassment at some time during their school lives and more than half experienced it often (Eseplage & Holt, 2007). Research suggests that bullying victimization relates to sexual harassment, dating violence victimization, and bullying perpetration is associated with being aggressive with dating partners. In addition, they indicate that experiencing victimization may increase vulnerability for future victimization. Victimization also leads to social withdrawal and friendship rejection, and over time contributes to more victimization.
The study explores race/ethnicity and sex differences in victimization experiences and the impact on the relations among the bully-victim, victim, and bully groups. It identifies that boys are more likely to engage in physical bullying than girls. According to Eseplage and Holt, girls reported that others made sexual jokes, comments, gestures, or looks toward them in a sexual way. In addition, African-American girls were more likely than whites and Hispanics to be touched or grabbed in a sexual way. Hispanic youth reported bullying others more than white or black students, while Black students reported being bullied more than whites or Hispanics. However, black students were most likely to be classified as bullies and bully victims, while whites were more likely to be uncertain (Eseplage & Holt, 2007).
Teen Dating Violence, Sexual Harassment: Measurement Invariance by Gender
This quantitative study explores measurement invariance by gender among teen dating violence and sexual harassment from seventh-grade middle school students. Most of the research on violence and aggression in adolescent romantic relationships usually suggests similar rates of dating violence perpetration between girls and boys. In general, the findings support that boys initiate and perpetrate more intense dating violence than girls. For example, Holt and Espelage (2007) found higher perpetration prevalence rates for boys than for girls. However, other studies found no statistically significant differences in sexual harassment experiences between girls and boys. The purpose of the study is to test measurement invariance by gender in scales used to measure teen dating violence and sexual harassment. By using this measure, it could be claimed with greater confidence that any gender differences observed are due to actual differences in group means rather than weak measuring artifacts. Both the physical and psychological teen dating violence perpetration measures achieved strict measurement invariance. In addition, the study has some limitations such as the findings might not generalize to adolescents from other parts of the country since the sample is not nationally representative (Cutbush & Williams, 2016).
Effects of an Interactive School-Based Program for Preventing Adolescent Sexual Harassment
Lijster, Felten, Kok, and Kocken’s research, a cluster-randomized controlled study assesses the effectiveness of the Benzies & Batchies program, a program that picks out the prevention of sexual harassment behaviors through a peer-related play, peer-led group discussion, and a lesson for secondary school students given by qualified professional instructors. The qualitative study shows that in the short term, the students had less intention to commit sexual harassment behavior and positive effects on the adolescents’ future sexual behavior as well (Lijster et al., 2016).
Findings
Involvement in bullying and sexual harassment is usually researched separately but recently, there have been findings that show a connection between adolescent bullying and sexual harassment. Participants who reported that they could talk to their parents and that teachers cared about them, were less likely to be in patterns with a high risk of involvement in bullying. Students who reported that their parents or friends cared less were most likely to be associated with physical and/or relational bullying victimization and perpetration. The importance of youth connections with adults, such as parents or school members is a protective factor against bullying and sexual harassment patterns. Teachers who incorporated socio-emotional learning into their teaching philosophy are more likely to be aware and intervene in bullying and sexual harassment incidents.
Individuals who experienced violent and aggressive behavior are more likely to adopt these behaviors themselves in the future. Findings show that victimization predicts aggressive behavior over time and those behavioral patterns tend to remain in a behavioral manner such as sexual harassment or physical violence. In addition, networks exhibiting a greater density of relationships would be supportive of social norms predicting sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can occur as early as 6th grade and increase through middle school. Girls report more sexual harassment victimization than boys did.
Victims who had experienced high levels of sexual harassment, victims, and bully victims with the highest levels of dating violence reported the highest levels of anxiety and depression. In addition, students who have been involved in aggressive acts either as victims or as perpetrators are at risk for developing future serious emotional, social, behavioral, and academic problems.
Recommendations
Youths experience sexual harassment behavior as victims, perpetrators, or both. The prevention of this behavior is very important because adolescent victims have a high threat concerning health behaviors such as suicidal thinking, suicidal ideation, and feeling unsafe at school. An effective recommendation would be using the Benzie & Batchies program according to Lijster, Felten, Kok, and Kocken (2016). This program combines peer-performed play, a peer-led group discussion, and lessons for secondary school students given by experts. Also, the development of sexual harassment training and orientation programs for administrators, employees, and students would be an important proposition.
Another recommendation would be that teachers and parents incorporate socio-emotional learning into their teaching philosophy. In addition, using programs that include parent-training sessions could be also effective. Parents should be informed of the details so their emotional and developmental needs can be addressed. Family involvement and possibly using outside counseling might be needed to avoid long-term emotional damage and modify inappropriate behavior.
Establishing communication channels that guarantee that everybody in school would be able to report those sexual harassment behaviors would be necessary. The diffusion of the school’s protocol for sexual harassment and the existence of an evaluation committee that advises and offers information, support, and assistance in the resolution of problems and procedures of the different cases would be effective. Other recommendations would be the implementation of informative campaigns aimed at everybody, to show them the rights, legal remedies, internal procedures for making complaints, and sanctions established for these cases of sexual harassment. In addition, demonstrating the importance of educating students about sexual harassment at schools would be helpful. Students must be taught the difference between friendly teasing and bullying, flirting, and harassment. Behavior expectations and patterns must be clearly defined and explained, and consistent consequences need to be highlighted and reinforced.
References
Cutbush, S. & Williams, J. (2016). Teen Dating Violence, Sexual Harassment, and Bullying Among Middle School Youth: Examining Measurement Invariance by Gender. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 26(4), 918-926. doi: 10.1111/jora.12244
De Lijster, GP., Felten, H., Kok, G. & Kocken, PL. (2016). Effects of an Interactive School-Based Program for Preventing Adolescent Sexual Harassment: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Evaluation Study. Journal Youth Adolescence. 45(5), 874-86. doi: 10.1007/s10964-016-0471-9
Doty, J., Gower, A., Rudi, J., McMorris, B. & Borowsky, I. (2017). Patterns of Bullying and Sexual Harassment: Connections with Parents and Teachers as Direct Protective Factors. Journal Youth Adolescence, 46, 2289-2304. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0698-0
Espelage, D. & Holt, M. (2007). Dating Violence & Sexual Harassment Across the Bully-Victim Continuum Among Middle and High School Students. Journal Youth Adolescence, 36, 799-811. doi:10.1007/s10964-006-9109-7
Higham, L. (2018). An Affective Politics of Sexual Harassment at School in the 21st Century: Schooling and Sexualities Twenty Years Later. Sex Education. 18(3), 293-306. doi: 10.1080/14681811.2018.1431879
Mumford, E., Okamoto, J., Taylor, B. & Stein, N. (2013). Middle, School Sexual Harassment, Violence, and Social Networks. American Journal of Health Behavior, 37(6), 769-779. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.37.6.6
Schnoll, J., Connolly, J., Josephson, J., Pepler. D. & Simkins, E. (2015). Same-and Cross-Gender Sexual Harassment Victimization in Middle School: A Developmental-Contextual Perspective. Journal of School Violence. 14, 196-216. doi: 10.1080/15388220.2014.906311