Young Adults’ Intrapersonal Construct Of Sexual Harassment

Abstract

There is little literature discussing the construction of meaning at an individual level about sexual harassment. This study presented the level of perception of males and females on sexually harassing content and discussed how males and females construe sexual harassment. Using integrated mixed methods and employing quota sampling, 400 respondents from the Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur provinces participated in the survey, and 10 participants were interviewed. Based on the study results, females and males have varying levels of perception of verbal, visual, physical, and digital body language constructs relating to sexually harassing content. Their levels of perception of sexually harassing content are more pronounced in same-sex communication; female-to-female, and male-to-male communication events. Further, the construct of sexual harassment was influenced by the sender’s and recipient’s gender and sex, degree of intimacy in relationships, and non-verbal communication. Future studies could explore policy sciences, computer-mediated communication, and misinterpretation and miscommunication in within sexual harassment issues.