OBJECTIVE: Sexual harassment is unlawful in all
work and educational
environments in most nations of the world. The
goals of this study were to describe the
sexual harassment prevalence and to evaluate the experiences and
attitudes of undergraduate
students in one
dental school in
Brazil . MATERIAL AND
METHODS: An 18-item
questionnaire was administered to 254
dental students with a completion rate of 82 percent (208).
Students were requested to respond to questions about their background and academic level in
dental school , their personal experiences with
sexual harassment and their
observation of someone else being sexually harassed. Bivariate statistical analyses were performed.
RESULTS: Fifteen percent of the
students reported being sexually harassed by a
patient , by a relative of a
patient or by a professor.
Male students had 3 times higher
probability of being sexually harassed than
female student [OR=2.910 (1.113-7.611)]. Additionally, 25.4 percent of the
students reported witnessing
sexual harassment at the
school environment . The majority of
students did not feel professionally prepared to respond to unwanted sexual
behaviors .
CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that
sexual harassment can occur in a
dental school setting. There is a need for ongoing
sexual harassment education programs for
students and
university staff. Increased
knowledge of
sexual harassment during graduation can better prepare dental professionals to respond to
sexual harassment during their practice.