Study of sexual harassment issues in physical education and athletics at colleges and universities.

Abstract

Sexual harassment over the past twenty years has become an important issue to institutions of higher education. With the growing legal concerns sexual harassment generates, it is vital for physical education programs and athletic departments to see that their faculty and staff are free from an environment of sexually harassing behavior. This study was undertaken to study the issues, perceptions and experiences of four groups of professionals (physical education faculty, athletic directors, athletic trainers, and physical education administrators). Four hundred subjects, one hundred from each group were randomly selected from four-year colleges and universities in the southeastern part of the United States. A survey instrument (VELMAC-SHQ) was used in this study to gather data on sexual harassment issues. Two hundred and five usable surveys were returned and analyzed using a two-way ANOVA on the major hypotheses. Descriptive data was generated by frequency distribution for discussion of the research questions. This study found that there is a significant difference between the genders with females having higher perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment than males. Analysis of the four groups showed that the groups' perceptions and experiences were not significantly different but very similar among the four groups. This study reviewed fifty alleged reports of sexual harassment and found the following: Sexual harassment is not a problem only for females, both males and females are targets of sexual harassment; The power of an administrator is not instrumental in the initiation of sexual harassment. Sixty-eight percent of the cases reviewed indicated that a colleague, student or other individual who was not in an administrative or supervisory role was the initiator of the sexually harassing behavior; Colleagues and associates who share equal positions of employment display sexually harassing behavior more than administrators/supervisors; Faculty and staff maybe s