Assessing sexual harassment among Latinas: development of an instrument

This study draws from multiple data sources and analytic approaches to offer preliminary evidence on how to assess sexual harassment among Latinas working in the United States, particularly working-class Mexican American women with moderately low acculturation. First, focus group data were collected from 45 Latinas to identify culture-specific manifestations of sexually harassing behavior. These data informed the development of new items for the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ: L. F. Fitzgerald et al., 1988), making it more appropriate for administration to Latinas with limited education. A 2nd Latina sample (N = 476) then completed this and other scales in a paper-and-pencil survey. Complete-link hierarchical cluster analyses of the SEQ data, based on a random half-sample of these women, revealed an underlying 3-factor structure. Confirmatory factor analyses on the 2nd half-sample confirmed that this factor model fit the data well, and both the individual factors and the larger scale appear highly reliable. Implications of both new and discarded SEQ-Latina items, the 3-factor structure, and relationships among the factors were discussed.