Marcos, V.; Seijo, D.; Montes, Á.; Arce, R. Prevalence and Quantification of the Effects of Sexual Harassment Victimization of School-Aged Adolescents. Children2024, 11, 23.
Marcos, V.; Seijo, D.; Montes, Á.; Arce, R. Prevalence and Quantification of the Effects of Sexual Harassment Victimization of School-Aged Adolescents. Children 2024, 11, 23.
Marcos, V.; Seijo, D.; Montes, Á.; Arce, R. Prevalence and Quantification of the Effects of Sexual Harassment Victimization of School-Aged Adolescents. Children2024, 11, 23.
Marcos, V.; Seijo, D.; Montes, Á.; Arce, R. Prevalence and Quantification of the Effects of Sexual Harassment Victimization of School-Aged Adolescents. Children 2024, 11, 23.
Abstract
Background/aim: Sexual harassment has become a serious social and public health problem in adolescence, causing adverse effects on mental health. Nevertheless, some behaviours arise that, due to their characteristics, might be misinterpreted as sexual harassment. A field study, a survey with a non-probabilistic accidental sampling, was designed in order to estimate the prevalence of sexual harassment victimization in the Spanish adolescent population, as well as to quantify the harms. Method: 1028 Spanish adolescents, 54.3% females and 45.7% males, aged 13-17 years (M = 15.21, SD = 1.03), responded to a diagnostic measure of sexual harassment victimization and an inventory measure of internalizing and externalizing Mental Health Problems (MHPs). Results: The results showed a significant prevalence of diagnosed sexual harassment victimization of school-aged adolescents, 24.1%, 95% [.215, 267], with adverse effects on internalizing and externalizing MHPs. As for the internalizing MHPs, the results showed moderate adverse effects on depression, anxiety, somatic burns, posttraumatic symptoms, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms; and mild adverse effects on social anxiety. With regard to externalizing MHPs, the results revealed moderate adverse effects on hyperactivity-impulsivity, anger control and antisocial behaviour; and mild adverse effects on attention problems, aggression and defiant behaviour. In addition, it was corroborated that sexual harassment victimization affects adolescent females to a greater extent, with the effect being significantly greater in internalizing than in externalizing MHPs. Conclusions: The results obtained are discussed and future lines of research and intervention are proposed to promote the implementation of prevention and intervention programs that address this phenomenon and, in turn, improve the physical, psychological, and social well-being of adolescents.
Keywords
Internalizing Mental Health Problems; Externalizing Mental Health Problems Adolescence; Educational setting; Violence prevention; Gender issues
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
