Sexual Harassment: Prevalence, Predictors, and Associated Outcomes in Late Adolescence

Background: Sexual harassment among adolescents is a prevalent, yet understudied, public health issue. Impacts of sexual harassment (SH) victimization include diminished health, educational and occupational outcomes, though our understanding of SH in the lives of older adolescents, especially among digital natives, remains limited. As SH in adolescence may increase risk for harassment and harm in adulthood, it is critical to understand and address adolescent experiences through prevention and intervention approaches. We utilized an existing longitudinal study to 1) examine the past 12-month prevalence of sexual harassment among older adolescents; 2) assess demographic and environmental factors associated with risk for past 12-month sexual harassment; and 3) determine associated health and academic outcomes with past 12-month sexual harassment victimization.

Methods: We leveraged an ongoing randomized-controlled trial examining the impact of a teen dating violence prevention program in 24 middle schools. The current study was limited to the control group and utilized data from wave 5 (n = 1,124), in which participants were seniors in high school. An online survey assessed for demographic factors, including gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation, in addition to measures of school climate, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and use of alcohol. Sexual harassment was measured with a modified version of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ). Multilevel logistic regression models estimated the associations of demographic and environmental factors to SH and the association of health and substance use outcomes to SH using STATA and maximum likelihood estimation.

Results: Participants were 50.6% female (n=568) and 46.9% Hispanic and majority youth of color. Over 18% identified as a gender and sexual minority. The past 12-month incident of any type of sexual harassment was 19.8% (13.1% of males and 25.3% of females). Female students had higher odds of SH incidence compared to male students, adolescents identifying as Hispanic were less likely to report SH compared to those who were not Hispanic (OR=.57, p=.002), and youth identifying as sexual minorities were more likely to experience SH (gay/lesbian (OR=2.63, p=.020) and bisexual/pansexual identities (OR=2.38, p<.001)) compared to heterosexual youth. Positive school climate was associated with decreased odds of sexual harassment (OR=.76, p=.017). PTSD (OR=2.94, p<.001), anxiety (OR=2.29, p<.001), depression (OR=1.55, p=.035) and frequency of alcohol use (OR=1.53, p=.002) were all associated with greater odds of SH incidence.

Conclusions and Implications: High rates of past year SH in late adolescence are particularly concerning given the associated risks with PTSD, depression, anxiety and alcohol use, all of which can be harmful to long-term development as youth transition to emerging adulthood. Robust prevention and intervention programs in schools and the community are needed to provide education about SH and avenues for addressing it. Efforts to enhance school climate, especially peer relationships, may also decrease the incidence of SH in late adolescence.