Adolescents' Perception of the Threat of Sexual Harassment: The Development of an Index

In Egypt female adolescents are on a daily basis victims of various forms of sexual harassment as young females are unable to justify their feelings, thoughts and behaviors toward such violent and hostile activities. Therefore, this study develops an adolescents' sexual harassment index (ASHI), which measures female adolescents' perception of the threat of sexual harassment based on cultural, environmental and societal aspects. A total of 874 adolescents age 17-18 in Egypt participated in a survey consisting of 65 items of 7 variables: threat of SH, exposure, society awareness, child's characteristics, social engagement, religiosity and the effect of the media. Using factor analysis with oblimn rotation, the analysis explained 42.38 percent of the variation in the study variables, leading to a four-factors solution: society awareness, interpersonal characteristics, personal engagement and sense of self and reality.