Perceptions of sexual harassment by evidence quality, perceiver gender, feminism, and right wing authoritarianism: Debunking popular myths.

This study examined the critique in public discourse that sexual harassment (SH) victim advocates, particularly women and feminists, ignore the quality of evidence in a SH claim and are reluctant to find evidence of a false accusation. To balance the inquiry, the study also examined whether right wing authoritarians (RWAs) also ignore evidence quality and presume such claims are false accusations. Participants were 961 U.S. adults (51% female) who completed an online experiment in which they read either a gender harassment (GH) or unwanted sexual attention (USA) scenario of hostile work environment SH and rated the scenario on severity, perceived guilt of the accused, belief that the accused should receive negative job consequences, and likelihood that the claimant was making a false accusation. Scenarios varied by the strength of the evidence in support of the SH claim. Participants completed measures of identification with and support for feminism, RWA, and demographic variables. Results found that contrary to expectations, evidence had a stronger effect on women's, feminists', and feminism supporters' perceptions and to a lesser extent RWAs' perceptions of the scenarios. When evidence was weak, women and feminists, compared to others, were less supportive of the prosecution, but when evidence was strong they were more supportive of the prosecution than were others. These findings address criticisms that advocates for gender equity and victim's rights, particularly women and feminists, are unable to reach fair judgments of SH complaints. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sexual harassment and posttraumatic stress disorder: damages beyond prior abuse.

This study examined the extent to which harassment experiences correlate with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and whether diagnosable PTSD on the basis of sexual harassment occurs after accounting for prior PTSD, prior sexual abuse, and prior psychological dysfunction. The sample consisted of a two-wave panel of 445 women who had received a domestic violence protective order from a Kentucky court. Hierarchical linear and logistic analyses confirmed that sexual harassment experiences were significantly correlated with PTSD symptoms after controlling for an extensive set of trauma variables measured in both the baseline and follow up interviews. Our findings lend further evidence that claims of PTSD from sexual harassment may be credible even if claimants have been victims of other forms of trauma.

Social, attitudinal, and demographic correlates of adolescent vs college-age tobacco use initiation.

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between social influences and smoking-related attitudes and age of cigarette use initiation among college students. METHODS: Responses from 3 campus surveys (2 random, 1 convenience) were analyzed. The surveys were modeled from existing state or national tobacco surveys and other psychometrically valid surveys. RESULTS: Social and attitudinal variables were associated with college-age initiation or college-age increases in smoking. CONCLUSION: This research has implications for tobacco control efforts aimed at reducing or preventing tobacco use on college campuses, such as restricting availability of tobacco products on campus and preventing smoking in all campus buildings including residence halls.

The need for tobacco education: studies of collegiate dental hygiene patients and faculty.

The need for inclusion of comprehensive tobacco control education/training for health care providers continues to be stressed in publications addressing cessation services. The dental appointment presents an excellent opportunity to provide tobacco interventions to basically healthy people on regular intervals. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to assess the need (stage of change and concomitant need for tobacco cessation intervention) of dental hygiene patients at a Midwest dental hygiene clinic, and 2) to assess and compare the level of tobacco intervention education currently being offered by dental hygiene educators in a Midwestern state. Patients (n=426) of a collegiate dental health clinic completed a survey that assessed the level and type of tobacco cessation intervention patients might require. A statewide sample of dental hygiene faculty (n=97) were surveyed to determine the attitudes, perceived barriers, and current practices in tobacco education offered in their programs. Of patients who currently smoked (34.5 percent), 24.7 percent indicated being in the Action stage of change; 14.2 percent were in Preparation; 22.2 percent were in Contemplation; and 29 percent were in Precontemplation. Although faculty indicated tobacco education was very important (5.03 on 1-6 scale), they felt only moderately confident delivering tobacco education (3.18 on a 1-5 scale). Only 16 percent to 35 percent of faculty reported that their curriculum included brief motivational interviewing, pharmacotherapies, or setting-up a private practice tobacco control program. The results strongly suggest the need for a comprehensive, competency-based tobacco curriculum to enhance and expand existing dental hygiene programs.

Rural elementary students', parents', and teachers' perceptions of bullying.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence and correlates of bullying in 7 rural elementary schools from students', parents', and teachers' perspectives. METHOD: Surveys were completed by 739 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students, 367 parents, and 37 teachers. RESULTS: Students tended to report higher prevalence of bullying than did parents or teachers, and their reports were associated with aggression, attitudes toward violence, and perceptions of school safety. CONCLUSION: Bullying behavior is prevalent in rural elementary schools and is indicative of aggression and proviolence attitudes. Parents and teachers need to pay closer attention to bullying behavior among schoolchildren and to impart their knowledge to children in a comprehensive, coordinated manner.

Evaluation of a comprehensive tobacco cessation curriculum for dental hygiene programs.

Dental health care providers continue to offer inconsistent and limited tobacco use cessation (TUC) interventions even though smoking-related morbidity and mortality continue to be a substantial health concern. Our purpose was to conduct a comprehensive, three-year (2003-06) TUC curriculum evaluation that included assessment of existing TUC education offered; dental hygiene educators' readiness to incorporate TUC education into the curriculum; and development of a pre-test/post-test assessment instrument and faculty development program. This curriculum study was carried out alongside a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-reviewed tobacco curriculum (Tobacco Free! Curriculum). Faculty members (baseline n=97; third-year n=42) from the twelve dental hygiene associate degree programs in Illinois participated in the study, which included a pre-treatment survey, six hours of on-site TUC curriculum training, and a post-treatment survey to determine the attitudes, perceived barriers, and current practices in tobacco education. Results showed an average increase of eighty-five minutes spent on tobacco education in the dental hygiene curriculum, a large positive increase in the percentage of faculty members who formally assessed the use of 5As and 5Rs (21 percent to 88 percent), and a dramatic increase (+100) in the percentage of faculty members who taught or included most of the thirteen TUC content areas following the introduction of the curriculum and training program.

Factors affecting adoption of tobacco education in dental hygiene programs.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco cessation interventions provided by health care professionals, including dental hygienists can significantly increase the rate of tobacco cessation, yet providers feel inadequately prepared to deliver such interventions. METHODS: 96 dental hygiene faculty completed a survey measuring attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control to determine their influence on teaching and assessing tobacco cessation intervention competencies. RESULTS: Prior experience with providing tobacco cessation counseling, perceptions of internal confidence and control of barriers were significantly related to covering tobacco-related topics. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive, flexible tobacco education curriculum guides may help faculty overcome barriers to incorporating tobacco education in dental hygiene programs.

Explaining sexual harassment judgments: looking beyond gender of the rater.

In two decades of research on sexual harassment, one finding that appears repeatedly is that gender of the rater influences judgments about sexual harassment such that women are more likely than men to label behavior as sexual harassment. Yet, sexual harassment judgments are complex, particularly in situations that culminate in legal proceedings. And, this one variable, gender, may have been overemphasized to the exclusion of other situational and rater characteristic variables. Moreover, why do gender differences appear? As work by Wiener and his colleagues have done (R. L. Wiener et al., 2002; R. L. Wiener & L. Hurt, 2000; R. L. Wiener, L. Hurt, B. Russell, K. Mannen, & C. Gasper, 1997), this study attempts to look beyond gender to answer this question. In the studies reported here, raters (undergraduates and community adults), either read a written scenario or viewed a videotaped reenactment of a sexual harassment trial. The nature of the work environment was manipulated to see what, if any, effect the context would have on gender effects. Additionally, a number of rater characteristics beyond gender were measured, including ambivalent sexism attitudes of the raters, their judgments of complainant credibility, and self-referencing that might help explain rater judgments. Respondent gender, work environment, and community vs. student sample differences produced reliable differences in sexual harassment ratings in both the written and video trial versions of the study. The gender and sample differences in the sexual harassment ratings, however, are explained by a model which incorporates hostile sexism, perceptions of the complainants credibility, and raters' own ability to put themselves in the complainant's position (self-referencing).