A study coordinated by a researcher from the University of Évora (UÉ) concluded that more than a third of university students have already experienced sexual harassment, and about half have experienced moral harassment.
These are some of the findings of the study, which was coordinated by Lara Guedes de Piño, Professor in the Department of Nursing at UÉ and Research Fellow at the Alentejo Academy’s Center for Comprehensive Health Research (CHRC).
“There is a high percentage of students who report that they have been subjected to moral and sexual harassment,” and these cases are associated with “a large number of depressive and anxiety symptoms,” Lara Guedes de Piño told Lusa today.
In a statement sent to Lusa, UÉ indicated that the study concluded that 34.8% of university students believe they have already suffered sexual harassment and that 50.2% of students say they have been the target of moral harassment. .
The study, with a sample of 3,399 students, was conducted at seven higher education institutions in the country, namely the UÉ, the Universities of Madeira, Azores, Atlantica and Fernando Pessoa, as well as the Polytechnic Institutes of Beja and Portalegre.
Half of the students surveyed for this job are under the age of 20, 80.5% are under 23, and 7.2% are over 30, with women making up 68% of the sample.
In the study, sexual harassment was considered “any behavior or exposure by words or actions of a sexual nature not intended by the person for whom it is intended and found to be offensive”.
Noting that “those who suffer from moral and sexual harassment have poorer mental health,” the HRCC researcher emphasized that the cases reported by students “occur more outside” universities.
According to the results, of the students who indicated that they had already been sexually harassed, 91.9% said they had been sexually harassed outside of the university, 2.2% in an institution, and 5.6% said they had been harassed in both situations.
The paper shows that the most identified aggressors were non-teaching staff of the university (14%), followed by a loving partner (10.5%), work colleagues (8.1%) or university colleagues (7.3%).
Family members make up 6.4% and teachers 2.9%, while, when analyzing other aggressors, the “big emphasis” for unknowns is 33%.
According to the same study, of university students who indicated that they had already experienced moral harassment, 77.4% reported that they had experienced harassment outside the university, 6.6% inside the school, and 15.5% said they had experienced harassment. persecution in both situations.
The study shows that the most identified aggressors were family members (26.7%), followed by university colleagues (25.1%), work colleagues (22.3%), romantic partners (14.9%), and also teachers (11%).
In this work, moral persecution is understood as “any offensive behavior of a psychological nature, frequent and deliberate, expressed in postures, gestures, words or letters, causing damage to physical or mental integrity.”
In statements to Luce, the study coordinator explained that this work was focused on the mental health of university students, arguing that “after the pandemic [da covid-19] the mental health of students has deteriorated.”
The study “also included some variables, such as moral and sexual harassment, to see if it significantly affected students’ mental health,” he added.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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