The sexual harassment of uppity women.

In 3 studies, the author tested 2 competing views of sexual harassment: (a) It is motivated primarily by sexual desire and, therefore, is directed at women who meet feminine ideals, and (b) it is motivated primarily by a desire to punish gender-role deviants and, therefore, is directed at women who violate feminine ideals. Study 1 included male and female college students (N = 175) and showed that women with relatively masculine personalities (e.g., assertive, dominant, and independent) experienced the most sexual harassment. Study 2 (N = 134) showed that this effect was not because women with relatively masculine personalities were more likely than others to negatively evaluate potentially harassing scenarios. Study 3 included male and female employees at 5 organizations (N = 238) and showed that women in male-dominated organizations were harassed more than women in female-dominated organizations, and that women in male-dominated organizations who had relatively masculine personalities were sexually harassed the most. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace harassment, services utilization, and drinking outcomes.

Given the negative outcomes associated with sexual harassment (SH) and generalized nonsexual workplace harassment (GWH), this study examines the relationship between SH and GWH and help-seeking behavior in a sample of 2,038 university employees. Employees who experienced SH or GWH were more likely to report having sought mental health or health services to deal with workplace issues, compared with those who did not experience SH or GWM, controlling for job stress and prior services use. Women experiencing GWH were more likely to use services than men, but the same was not true for SH. Men experiencing SH who sought services exhibited higher levels of some alcohol outcomes, contrary to expectations. Implications for workplace interventions and for service providers are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in experiences of sexual harassment: Data from a male-dominated environment.

The goal of this investigation was to examine gender differences in experiences of sexual harassment during military service and the negative mental health symptoms associated with these experiences. Female (n = 2,319) and male (n = 1,627) former reservists were surveyed about sexual harassment during their military service and current mental health symptoms. As expected, women reported a higher frequency of sexual harassment. Further, women had increased odds of experiencing all subtypes of sexual harassment. Being female conferred the greatest risk for experiencing the most serious forms of harassment. For both men and women, sexual harassment was associated with more negative current mental health. However, at higher levels of harassment, associations with some negative mental health symptoms were stronger for men than women. Although preliminary, the results of this investigation suggest that although women are harassed more frequently than men, clinicians must increase their awareness of the potential for sexual harassment among men in order to provide the best possible care to all victims of harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Labeling sexual harassment in the military: An extension and replication.

Research conducted by V. Magley, C. Hulin, L. F. Fitzgerald, and M. DeNardo (1999) has suggested that women who experience sexual harassment report worse outcomes independent of the labeling process. This study replicates and extends that work. Discriminant analyses were conducted on a sample of approximately 28,000 men and women from the military. The authors included variables similar to those used by V. Magley et al., as well as a variety of antecedent variables. Two significant functions were obtained from the discriminant analysis. The 1st function ordered groups according to the frequency of harassment and accounted for substantially more variance than did the 2nd function, which ordered groups according to whether they labeled their experiences as sexual harassment. The overall results from these analyses demonstrate that labeling incidents as sexual harassment is of marginal meaningfulness in terms of job outcomes and antecedents of harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace harassment: Double jeopardy for minority women.

To date there have been no studies of how both sex and ethnicity might affect the incidence of both sexual and ethnic harassment at work. This article represents an effort to fill this gap. Data from employees at 5 organizations were used to test whether minority women are subject to double jeopardy at work, experiencing the most harassment because they are both women and members of a minority group. The results supported this prediction. Women experienced more sexual harassment than men, minorities experienced more ethnic harassment than Whites, and minority women experienced more harassment overall than majority men, minority men, and majority women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work and health outcomes among police officers: The mediating role of police cynicism and engagement.

This study examined the relationship between personality variables (Type A), job demands and job resources, and police cynicism and engagement, and also examined the mediating role of cynicism and work engagement in predicting both work and health related outcomes among police officers. The participants were 150 Norwegian police officers, and data were collected using questionnaires. Results showed that Type A behavior was related to both cynicism and engagement. As predicted, both job demands and lack of job resources were related to cynicism, and job resources were positively related to engagement. A series of regression analyses indicated direct relationships between Type A behavior, job demands and health complaints with no mediating effect of cynicism. Work engagement partially mediated the effects of individual characteristics, job demands and job resources on organizational commitment and self-efficacy. However, direct links between demands and resources and organizational commitment were also found, as well as direct links between Type A behavior, work demands and self-efficacy. The implications of work engagement for organizations were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of workplace harassment, gender, and use of services: An update.

Using three waves of data from an ongoing study of current and former university employees (N = 1,656), the authors reexamined the roles of sexual (SH) and generalized (GWH) workplace harassment and gender in predicting use of professional services by focusing on patterning (chronic, remission, onset, intermittent, and never harassed). The authors also reexamined whether services moderated relationships between SH and GWH patterns and drinking and mental health outcomes. All patterns of SH, but only chronic GWH, predicted increased odds of services use. Services use did not moderate relationship between SH patterns and outcomes, but was associated with lower alcohol consumption for men with GWH remission or chronicity, reduced escape drinking for those with GWH remission, and reduced hostility for those with intermittent GWH. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding a link between sexual harassment and eating disorder symptoms: A mediational analysis.

Using data from 3 samples of working women and men, the present study examines the association between sexual harassment and eating disorder symptoms by studying the processes that may underlie this relationship. The results of structural equation modeling suggest a link between sexual harassment and eating disorder symptoms among women and indicate that this relationship is mediated by psychological distress, self-esteem, and self-blame. Further, sexual harassment was found to predict eating disorder symptoms among women even when experiences of sexual assault were included in the model. No relationship was found between sexual harassment and eating disorder symptoms among men. The theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual assault and other types of sexual harassment by workplace personnel: A comparison of antecedents and consequences.

Although sexual assault by workplace personnel is widely viewed as a type of sexual harassment, little is known about whether these overlapping constructs may possess some unique characteristics. This article compares the theoretical antecedents and consequences of sexual assault by workplace personnel and other types of sexual harassment among 22,372 women employed in the U.S. military. Path analysis revealed that low sociocultural and organizational power are associated with an increased likelihood of both types of victimization. Organizational climate and job gender context are directly associated with sexual harassment but are only indirectly associated with sexual assault by workplace personnel. Both types of victimization are associated with a variety of negative outcomes, but the pattern of negative consequences differs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of female undergraduates to scenarios of sexual harassment by male professors and teaching assistants.

This study sought to identify some of the factors that lead to assertive responding to sexual harassment. Responses of 120 female undergraduates (aged 19–50 yrs) to hypothetical scenarios of sexual harassment by male professors or teaching assistants were investigated. Two situational variables (ambiguity of the behavior and harasser status) and 1 individual difference variable (coping style) were examined. Participants completed a coping inventory and a questionnaire containing 1 of 4 harassment scenarios, with measures of affect, perceptions of the instructor, acknowledgment of the behavior as sexual harassment, and behavioral responses at 2 stages. Less ambiguous harassment situations were associated with greater negative affect, acknowledgment of sexual harassment, and more assertive responding. Coping style, but not harasser status, was also related to response strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparing victim attributions and outcomes for workplace aggression and sexual harassment.

In 2 studies, we investigated victim attributions (Study 1) and outcomes (Study 2) for workplace aggression and sexual harassment. Drawing on social categorization theory, we argue that victims of workplace aggression and sexual harassment may make different attributions about their mistreatment. In Study 1, we investigated victim attributions in an experimental study. We hypothesized that victims of sexual harassment are more likely than victims of workplace aggression to depersonalize their mistreatment and attribute blame to the perpetrator or the perpetrator's attitudes toward their gender. In contrast, victims of workplace aggression are more likely than victims of sexual harassment to personalize the mistreatment and make internal attributions. Results supported our hypotheses. On the basis of differential attributions for these 2 types of mistreatment, we argue that victims of workplace aggression may experience stronger adverse outcomes than victims of sexual harassment. In Study 2, we compared meta-analytically the attitudinal, behavioral, and health outcomes of workplace aggression and sexual harassment. Negative outcomes of workplace aggression were stronger in magnitude than those of sexual harassment for 6 of the 8 outcome variables. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual Harassment Under Social Identity Threat: The Computer Harassment Paradigm.

Two laboratory experiments investigated the hypothesis that threat to male identity would increase the likelihood of gender harassment. In both experiments, using the computer harassment paradigm, male university students (N=80 in Experiment 1, N=90 in Experiment 2) were exposed to different types of identity threat (legitimacy threat and threat to group value in Experiment 1 and distinctiveness threat and prototypicality threat in Experiment 2) or to no threat and were then given the opportunity to send pornographic material to a virtual female interaction partner. Results show that (a) participants harassed the female interaction partner more when they were exposed to a legitimacy, distinctiveness, or prototypicality threat than to no threat; (b) this was mainly true for highly identified males; and (c) harassment enhanced postexperimental gender identification. Results are interpreted as supporting a social identity account of gender harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harassing under the influence: The prevalence of male heavy drinking, the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms, and the gender harassment of female coworkers.

Drawing from the literature linking alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior, the authors examine the degree to which the risk of gender harassment toward female workers may be associated with the drinking behaviors and perceived workplace drinking norms of their male coworkers. Using multilevel analyses to examine data from 1,301 workers (including 262 women employed in 58 work units in the manufacturing, service and construction sectors), our findings indicate that, even when controlling for a variety of other demographic and unit-level factors, there is a significant association between the proportion of males in a work unit identified as being heavy or "at-risk" drinkers and the probability of gender harassment toward unit females. Our findings further indicate that this association is amplified as a function of the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms among males' referent others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When the customer shouldn't be king: Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment by clients and customers.

Much of the work in today's service industries requires women to deal with people outside of their organizations, namely, customers and clients, yet research on sexual harassment has focused almost exclusively on sexual harassment within organizations. Because the threat of harassment also operates at the boundaries of organizations, our existing models based solely on harassment inside organizations may be too restricted to adequately explain the harassment experiences of women in today's economy. To address this, the authors introduce a theoretical model of the antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment by clients and customers (CSH) and describe 2 field studies conducted to test components of the model. In Study 1, they developed a model of antecedents and consequences of CSH and illustrated that certain contextual factors (client power and gender composition of the client base) affect levels of CSH and that CSH is related to a number of job and psychological outcomes among professional women. Study 2 revealed that CSH is related to lower job satisfaction among nonprofessional women, above and beyond that which is accounted for by internal sexual harassment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A more accurate approach to measuring the prevalence of sexual harassment among high school students.

The present study surveyed the prevalence of sexual harassment among high school students. A total of 1,582 students from 18 schools completed a version of the American Association of University Women (1993) survey. Reported sexual harassment events were restricted to those that: a) had been experienced first-hand, b) had occurred within the preceding two weeks, and c) were reported by students who were notably upset by their experiences. Despite this stringent approach, sexual harassment was found to be a significant problem in high schools. Fifteen percent of students were both sexually harassed and very or somewhat upset by their harassment experiences. Nearly half of these upset students were recipients of physical forms of sexual harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Burnout among Norwegian police officers: Potential antecedents and consequences.

This investigation examined potential antecedents and consequences of burnout in a large sample of Norwegian police officers. Data were collected via anonymously completed questionnaires. Three burnout components considered were emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and low professional efficacy. Work demands emerged in hierarchical regression analyses as the strongest predictor of each burnout component. With the burnout components as predictors, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that burnout components had significant relationships with a variety of outcomes (work, work-family, psychological health, physical health). Work demands, however, had a stronger relationship with both work and work-family outcomes than did the burnout components, the latter having the strongest relationship with indicators of psychological health. Emotional exhaustion had significant and independent relationships with most of the outcome measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confrontations with aggression and mental health problems in police officers: The role of organizational stressors, life-events and previous mental health problems.

The extent to which the frequency of facing aggression incidents is associated with mental health problems among police officers when organizational stressors, life-events, and previous mental health problems are taken into account is unclear. To elucidate this data from a longitudinal study of police officers was analyzed (N = 473). Mental health problems (MHPs) are here defined as severe anxiety, depression, hostility, burnout symptoms, and/or sleeping problems according the SCL-90–R and MBI. All MHPs were assessed at baseline and 27 months later. Logistic regression showed that serious threat was statistically significant associated with MHPs at follow-up among officers without MHPs at baseline, but not among those with MHPs at baseline. However, stepwise logistic regression showed that serious threat and/or physical aggression were not independently associated with MHPs at follow-up. Organizational stressors, that is, problems with colleagues were independent predictors in all analyses. Among the total study sample, previous MHPs were the strongest independent predictors. These findings suggest superiors should attend to the mental health, organizational stressors and life-events of their officers regularly and not only following critical incidents at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minority stress and mental health among Dutch LGBs: Examination of differences between sex and sexual orientation.

Minority stress is often cited as an explanation for greater mental health problems among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals than heterosexual individuals. However, studies focusing on sex or sexual orientation differences in level of minority stress and its impact on mental health are scarce, even more so outside the United States. Performing secondary analyses on the data of a Dutch population study on sexual health, the present study examines the robustness of the minority stress model by explaining mental health problems among men and women with mostly or only same-sex sexual attraction, and men and women who are equally attracted to same-sex and opposite-sex partners in the “gay-friendly” Netherlands (N = 389; 118 gay men, 40 bisexual men, 184 lesbian women, and 54 bisexual women). Results showed that minority stress is also related to mental health of Dutch LGBs. Participants with a higher level of internalized homonegativity and those who more often encountered negative reactions from other people on their same-sex sexual attraction reported more mental health problems. Such negative reactions from others, however, had a stronger link with mental health among lesbian/gay than among bisexual participants. Openness about one's sexual orientation was related to better mental health among sexual minority women, but not among their male counterparts. Suggestions for future research, implications for counseling, and other societal interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is so bad about a little name-calling? Negative consequences of gender harassment for overperformance demands and distress.

Few studies have investigated why harassment has negative effects on women's well-being. The authors proposed that, for women working in traditionally male occupations, gender harassment (GH) causes overperformance demands (OPD), which lead to psychological distress. This mediated model was strongly supported for 262 female police officers but, as proposed, was not supported for male officers (N=315). For men, levels of GH and OPD were lower than for women, and GH was not a significant predictor of OPD. Harassing behaviors thus had different consequences for women and men. A lack of perceived support for equal deployment of women police was associated with OPD for women, and family → work conflict was a significant predictor of OPD for both men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional dissonance, burnout, and in-role performance among nurses and police officers.

Two studies including 108 nurses and 101 police officers tested the proposition that emotionally demanding interactions with recipients may result in emotional dissonance, which, in turn, may lead to job burnout and impaired performance. More specifically, on the basis of the literature on burnout and emotional dissonance, the authors hypothesized that emotional job demands would explain variance in burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism/disengagement) through their influence on emotional dissonance. In addition, the authors predicted that emotional dissonance would be (negatively) related to in-role performance through its relationship with burnout. The findings of a series of structural equation modeling analyses supported both hypotheses. The implications for research and practice are discussed, as well as avenues for additional research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)