Social-ecological factors associated with sexual harassment across locations in US college students

Objective: Using the social-ecological model of violence prevention, we examined the locations in which sexual harassment occurs and whether harassment differed in terms of target, harasser, relationship, and incident characteristics across locations. Participants: A total of 246 mostly women, straight, White, and cisgender students at a large Midwestern university. Methods: Students completed an online survey and reported information about sexually-harassing experiences from the last seven days. Results: Students reported 821 instances of sexual harassment (M = 3.34 per student) over the past seven days; 74% of students reported any harassment. Using multilevel modeling, characteristics of harassers, incident characteristics, and the relationship between harassers and targets distinguished between harassment experienced across locations (i.e., housing, outside, online, public establishments, and academic buildings) more than did target characteristics. Conclusions: These findings inform harassment prevention efforts at universities by suggesting interventions tailored to specific locations and inform debates about the proper scope of campus sexual harassment policies.