Internationale Zeitschrift für psychische Notfallgesundheit und menschliche Resilienz

Abstrakt

Sexual street harassment, its impact and reactions in men and women

Gloria Margarita Gurrola-Peña, Alejandra Moysén-Chimal, Patricia Balcázar-Nava, Martha Cecilia Villaveces-López

The aim of the present study was to identify the relationship and different impact of sexual street harassment on the reactions and severity of psychopathological symptoms in men and women. A total of 402 women and 218 heterosexual men with an average age of 20.5 years, who reported having experienced street harassment, participated voluntarily in this study. Participants responded to the Mexican Street Harassment Questionnaire that measures different types of harassment, as well as the Brief Symptom Inventory that measures psychopathological symptoms and their degree of severity. The results show a three-to-one prevalence of street harassment between women and men, and women showed a greater number of psychopathological symptoms than men. Negative and self-protective reactions were present in both groups, although men also presented positive or neutral reactions. Finally, the stepwise linear regression indicates that physical harassment is the variable that predicts greater severity of psychopathological symptoms in women, while for men, non-physical harassment and explicit harassment are the predictors.