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Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Universities can be understood as work-like environments for students, with similar risks and expectations regarding psychosocial environment. Limited research has examined this study environment from a Demand-Control-Support perspective with regard to sexual harassment. Understanding th...

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Autores principales: Palmieri, Jack, Östergren, Per-Olof, Larsson, Markus, Agardh, Anette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37823382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2023.2264627
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author Palmieri, Jack
Östergren, Per-Olof
Larsson, Markus
Agardh, Anette
author_facet Palmieri, Jack
Östergren, Per-Olof
Larsson, Markus
Agardh, Anette
author_sort Palmieri, Jack
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Universities can be understood as work-like environments for students, with similar risks and expectations regarding psychosocial environment. Limited research has examined this study environment from a Demand-Control-Support perspective with regard to sexual harassment. Understanding this environment is key to designing protective measures. This study aimed to examine the association between individual and psychosocial study environment characteristics and exposure to sexual harassment among students at Lund University, Sweden. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilised data from an online survey conducted among students. Questions on background characteristics, exposure to sexual harassment while at university and psychosocial study environment as measured by a Demand-Control-Support-instrument were used. Bivariate, and multivariable logistic regressions were used, together with Population Attributable Fractions (PAF), and synergy indexes (SI). RESULTS: High demands and low control were independently associated with higher odds of being exposed to sexual harassment among both females and males (OR 1.41, OR 1.26 and OR 1.55, OR1.34, respectively). When adjusting for background characteristics, high study strain (combination of high demands and low control) was associated with exposure to sexual harassment among both female and male respondents (aOR 1.67 and 1.98 respectively) and could account for PAF of 14% and 15% of study environment sexual harassment for females and males, respectively. Low lecturer support was associated with higher odds for sexual harassment among females (aOR 1.19) but not males. Little evidence was found for a buffering effect of student support on high strain and sexual harassment (SI 0.7). CONCLUSION: Working to reduce situations of high strain study environments could be an effective strategy for reducing sexual harassment in university settings. Improving support from lecturers could also modify this relationship, but more research is required to identify causal pathways underlying this result.
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spelling pubmed-105720352023-10-14 Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study Palmieri, Jack Östergren, Per-Olof Larsson, Markus Agardh, Anette Glob Health Action Research Article BACKGROUND: Universities can be understood as work-like environments for students, with similar risks and expectations regarding psychosocial environment. Limited research has examined this study environment from a Demand-Control-Support perspective with regard to sexual harassment. Understanding this environment is key to designing protective measures. This study aimed to examine the association between individual and psychosocial study environment characteristics and exposure to sexual harassment among students at Lund University, Sweden. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilised data from an online survey conducted among students. Questions on background characteristics, exposure to sexual harassment while at university and psychosocial study environment as measured by a Demand-Control-Support-instrument were used. Bivariate, and multivariable logistic regressions were used, together with Population Attributable Fractions (PAF), and synergy indexes (SI). RESULTS: High demands and low control were independently associated with higher odds of being exposed to sexual harassment among both females and males (OR 1.41, OR 1.26 and OR 1.55, OR1.34, respectively). When adjusting for background characteristics, high study strain (combination of high demands and low control) was associated with exposure to sexual harassment among both female and male respondents (aOR 1.67 and 1.98 respectively) and could account for PAF of 14% and 15% of study environment sexual harassment for females and males, respectively. Low lecturer support was associated with higher odds for sexual harassment among females (aOR 1.19) but not males. Little evidence was found for a buffering effect of student support on high strain and sexual harassment (SI 0.7). CONCLUSION: Working to reduce situations of high strain study environments could be an effective strategy for reducing sexual harassment in university settings. Improving support from lecturers could also modify this relationship, but more research is required to identify causal pathways underlying this result. Taylor & Francis 2023-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10572035/ /pubmed/37823382 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2023.2264627 Text en © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
spellingShingle Research Article
Palmieri, Jack
Östergren, Per-Olof
Larsson, Markus
Agardh, Anette
Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title_full Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title_short Psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study
title_sort psychosocial study environment characteristics associated with exposure to sexual harassment at a large public university in southern sweden: a cross-sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37823382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2023.2264627
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