Poster #191 - The Gendered Dynamics of Misogynistic and Homophobic Harassment Among Friends

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Young people frequently experience misogynistic and homophobic (MH) harassment (Hill & Kearl, 2011). While several researchers have investigated the gendered dynamics of young people’s experience of MH harassment (see Fineran & Bennett, 1999; Espelage, Hong, Rinehart, & Doshi, 2016), only one study, to date, has examined the relationship between victims and perpetrators across different types of harassment behaviors (Espelage, et al., 2016). Using the AAUW measure of sexual harassment, Espelage et al. (2016) found that males reported higher rates of being victims of homophobic name-calling perpetrated by male friends while females reported higher rates of being victims of more traditional forms of sexual harassment perpetrated by males in general. While valid and reliable, the AAUW measure is limited in that it includes only one item pertaining to homophobic harassment. In addition, in the Espelage study, the gender of perpetrators and their relationship to the victim were conflated by being asked within the same question. In the current study we sought to expand on this literature by including additional types of types homophobic harassment experienced by young people and by systematically investigating the role of victim and perpetrator genders and type of relationship across these different types of harassment.
Adolescents (N=1,408) in grades 7, 8, 9, and 11 completed a survey regarding experiencing 12 different types of MH harassment (Table 1). If participants responded that they had experienced the harassment, they then responded to questions regarding the gender of the person(s) who perpetrated the harassment, as well as the type of relationship they had with the person(s).
Preliminary analyses revealed that victims most frequently reported their friend(s) as perpetrator(s) (42%) regardless of type of harassment. Due to the high rate of harassment experiences between friends, subsequent analyses focused specifically on this context.
To investigate the role of gender, we performed 12 two (gender of victim: female, male) by three (gender of perpetrator: female, male, both) chi-square analyses. For each type of harassment, the analysis yielded significant differences in the relationship between genders of the perpetrator and victim. The gendered dynamics, however, differed across types of harassment. For example, females were more likely to identify as victims of sexual than males, (X2 = 22.207, p <.001), perpetrated by a male friend. Conversely, males were more likely than females to identify as victims of teasing due to sexual orientation, (X2 = 19.942, p <.001), but also perpetrated by male friends (see Table 2 for results across all types of harassment).
The results of this study support the need for further research on harassing behaviors within friendships due to the frequency in which this occurs. Given that students are already unlikely to report their experiences of harassment (Young, Grey, & Boyd, 2009), young people may be even more likely to dismiss these experiences as harassment and less likely to report them if they are happening among friends. Implications for future research and prevention efforts will be discussed.

Authors

• Christopher Marosi, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Megan Edgin, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean Klasovsky, University of Illinois - Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stacey Horn, University of Illinois, Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author