Sexual harassment, self-esteem and self-concept clarity

Background: Research has shown that sexually abused (SA) women report lower levels of self-esteem[1] and lower self-concept clarity[2]. The theoretical mechanisms of these associations could apply to sexual harassment (SH).

Objective: To compare self-esteem and self-concept clarity in women who have been victim of SH (without SA) to 1) victims of (attempted) SA (with or without SH), and 2) women who have never been victim of SH or SA.

Method: Undergraduate students took part in a cross-sectional survey including self-report measures of stressful life events (e.g., SA, SH), self-esteem and self-concept clarity. Female participants were grouped based on their experience of SA (n = 66), SH (n = 192), or never SA or SH (n = 430). A MANOVA was conducted with self-esteem and self-concept clarity as dependent variables and the three groups considered as independent variable.

Results: The SH group reported significantly lower levels of self-esteem than women with no experience of SA or SH, but higher self-esteem than the SA group. Furthermore, self-concept clarity was significantly lower in the SH group compared to never SA nor SH, but did not differ significantly to the SA group.

Conclusion: Sexual harassment in the absence of sexual abuse appear to be associated with low self-esteem and low self-concept clarity, although not as low as those who have been victim of sexual abuse. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study, and previous studies[3], it cannot be ruled out that self-esteem and self-concept clarity were lowered prior to the sexual harassment.