Abstract:
he main purpose of!his study was to investigate sexual harassment against secondary schoolgirls
and its psychological consequences specifically in relation to its prevalence, perpetrators, places of
harassment within the school setting, coping strategies and its impact on schoolgirls self esteem and
level depression. To achieve this purpose 7 out of 37 schools 575 schoolgirls out of 2765 and seven
school principals out of fourteen were taken in the first phase of the sampling process and then a
total 467 sexual harassment victi!Jf schoolgirls were selected through multistage sampling. The data
~re collected through four different questionnaires from schoolgirls and through an interview
conducted with school principals.· In the, data analysis process the quantitative data were analyzed
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through mean, percent, one way ANQVA, three way ANO VA , correlation and linear regression
while, qualitative analysis were used to analyze the data obtained through the interview. The
quantitative analysis result revealed that sexual harassment was 81% prevalent among schoolgirls
.in which male students and teachers were majorperpetrators (90%) and classrooms and sport fields
were the most common location (74%J for sexual harassment against schoolgirls· Furthermore the
J : result d,'B°picted that schoolgirls usually employed ineffective coping strategies. such as denial and
.. ,..., .
.. • ~ .. avoidance mostly unlike confrontation and advocacy seeking coping strategies. Whereas the linear
~ "('egression· analysis indicated that sexual harassment experience significantly affect schoolgirls level
self .. esteem.(R2==17, p<0.01) and. depression (R2=25, P<0.01) .The correlation analysis also
'reve~led that schoolgirls self esteem was negatively .correlated. with their. depression (r=-309,
'P<'O. OJ) and similarly their coping strategy was negatively correlated with their level of depression
(r=-Ji52; P<0.01} and sexual harassment experience (r=-207, P<0.01). While the qualitative
analysissdepicted that there was no anti sexual harassment policy and special grievance procedure
in the sc.boo)s together with limited awareness creation practice. Finally, based on these findings
..... implicatio7ls were discussed with conclusions and some rec~mmendations to mitigate the problem ..