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Dimensions of Peer Sexual Harassment in Swedish High Schools: What Factor Structures Show the Best Fit to Girls' and Boys' Self-Reports?

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Abstract

Dimensions of peer sexual harassment in schools were analyzed with confirmatory factor analyses of data from a questionnaire study of 980 Swedish high-school students. The factorial structures suggested in the literature on sexual harassment in the workplace showed a bad fit to the student data, especially for boys. A nested structure, with one general factor and two specific factors (closest to the hostile environment and sexual attention categories), appeared to offer the best fit-to-data for female students. For male students, however, the structure was less clear, and the fit worse, but the presence of a general sexual harassment factor was supported also there. No acceptable model common to boys and girls could be identified.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Work and Health, National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, Sweden

    Eva Witkowska

  2. Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Eva Witkowska

  3. Centre for Built Environment Research, Gävle University, Gävle, Sweden

    Anders Kjellberg

  4. Department for Work and Health, National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, S-11391, Sweden

    Eva Witkowska

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  1. Eva Witkowska
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  2. Anders Kjellberg
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Correspondence to Eva Witkowska.

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Witkowska, E., Kjellberg, A. Dimensions of Peer Sexual Harassment in Swedish High Schools: What Factor Structures Show the Best Fit to Girls' and Boys' Self-Reports?. Sex Roles 53, 677–687 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7733-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7733-4

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