Contrapower Sexual Harassment of Military Officers; Master's thesis

摘要

This study was designed to investigate the experiences of military officers with contrapower sexual harassment (i.e., harassment of superiors by subordinates). Ninety military officers currently stationed at a U.S. service academy were asked to answer questions about their experiences with 10 contrapower harassing behaviors, their perceptions of a subordinate's ability to sexually harass a superior, and how often they had perpetrated any of 10 behaviors against a superior. The impact of contrapower harassing experiences was also investigated. Findings indicated that contrapower harassment may be a significant problem within the military; 74.4% of participants indicated that they have experienced at least one contrapower harassing behavior in their military career. Women officers experienced significantly more contrapower harassment and were significantly more bothered by the harassment experienced than were men officers. Both men and women officers experienced the majority of contrapower harassment from subordinates of the other sex, however men were significantly more likely than were women to be harassed by subordinates of the same sex and by a combination of both sexes. Findings suggest that contrapower harassment may present challenges in a military setting unlike those of the civilian academic settings of previous research.