Department of Nursing, College of Natural Science, Dongeui University, Korea. hmjung@deu.ac.kr
Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate factors influencing sexual harassment and the frequency of incidents among university students.
METHOD: During 1-20 July 2004, 339 students from five universities in Busan, Korea, responded to a written questionnaire. The SPSS Program calculated descriptive statistics, chi square test, and logistic regression analysis of the data.
RESULTS: Of the total respondents, 69.3% (62.6% of the males and 77.2% of the females), reported that they were victims of sexual harassment. Conversely, 72.5% (males 84.3%; females 58.4%), indicated that they were sexual harassment offenders. Characteristics of the reported victims were significantly different in terms of class year, proportion of males to females in their academic department, and group norms regarding sexually harassing behavior. Characteristics of the admitted offenders were significantly different in term of proportion of males to females within their academic department, group norms, and awareness of sexual harassment.
Factors predicting sexual harassment included gender, proportion of males to females in an academic department, the group norms regarding sexually harassing behavior, and the offenders experiences.
CONCLUSION: This study suggested that occurrence of sexual harassment among university students were related to various factors. Prevention programs should be developed that focus on these factors.