Sexual harassment in campus: awareness, risk factor, and effect among students in higher learning institutions

Abstract

This study is an ongoing project related the problem of sexual harassment in academic setting. The objectives are (i) to determine the awareness of sexual harassment among students in higher learning institutions, (ii) to identify the existence of sexual harassment in higher learning institutions, and (iii) to investigate the risk factors contributed to the action. Questionnaires were distributed to 351 students in a public university in East Coast Malaysia. The findings revealed that 58.6% of the respondents have been harassed at least once and majority of them were female. The greatest form of sexual harassment experience by the respondents was offensive behavior followed by unwanted sexual attention while sexual coercion contributed least toward the act. Majority of the respondents agreed that sexual harassment experienced affected their emotional greatly compared to education and productivity.

Keywords: sexual harassment; students; higher learning institution