Coping with sexual harassment: personal, environmental, and cognitive determinants

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Military Science

Background:

• Sexual harassment is a significant issue with complex coping mechanisms.
• Understanding determinants and cognitive processes of coping is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine coping strategies in response to sexual harassment.
• To identify personal and environmental determinants of these strategies.
• To explore cognitive processes underlying strategy choice.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a multidimensional coping typology and a process model.
• Analyzed survey responses from 15,404 military members reporting unwanted sex-related attention.

Main Results:

• Found strong support for the chosen coping typology and process model.
• Coping strategy choice varied significantly by occupational status, gender, climate, harassment severity, and power differential.
• Cognitive appraisal was found to mediate the relationship between determinants and coping.

Conclusions:

• The study validates the utility of the coping typology and process model.
• Personal and environmental factors significantly influence sexual harassment coping strategies.
• Cognitive appraisal plays a key role in mediating these influences.