No CrossRef data available.
Correlates of Sexual Harassment Among Staff and Students in First Generation South West Nigerian Universities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2023
Abstract
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Aims
Sexual harassment (SH) is a widespread and recurring problem in educational settings. SH is not easy to define, partly because it does not involve a homogenous set of behaviours. There are gender variations in the experience and perception of SH. Risk factors for SH include female gender and gender inequality, same-sex attraction, poverty, poorly trained, underpaid, and understaffed educators. The study aimed to determine the prevalence rates and correlates of heterosexual and same-sex SH and to explore the social and mental health sequelae of SH among students and staff of first-generation universities in South-west Nigeria.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was done in three first-generation universities in southwest Nigeria. A sample size of 550 participants per institution was estimated with a margin of error of 2.5%, a 95% confidence level. This gave a total sample size of 1650 respondents participants for the study. In each university, Students and staff were categorized by faculties into 3 clusters: science, social science, and arts. A proportionate sampling technique was used. Participants were assessed for SH, age, sexual orientation, gender, motivation for dressing, depressive symptoms, and suicidality. Associations were tested using Pearson correlations.
Results
SH was higher with age, among females, among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB), participants with sexual motivation for dressing, high sexual desire, high suicidality, and low perception of campus safety. In terms of gender differences, correlation with age was slightly higher in females while correlations with lesbian/gay status was higher in males. In terms of sexual orientation, correlation with age was largest in LGB, association with dressing motivation, sexual desire, and depressive symptoms scores was greatest in heterosexual participants, association with suicidality scores was greatest with lesbian/gay status; and correlation with perception of campus as safe lowest among bisexual participants. Generally, the associations were weakest among staff compared to students.
Conclusion
There are certain demographics (heterosexual and bisexual females and gay men) that appear to be more vulnerable to SH in tertiary institutions. The correlates of SH also vary in the different sample groups. These should be considered when programming for prevention and response to SH in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
- Type
- Research
- Information
- BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S59 - S60
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Footnotes
Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.
You have
Access
Open access
eLetters
No eLetters have been published for this article.