Isn’t high school bad enough already? Rates of gender harassment and institutional betrayal in high school and their association with trauma-related symptoms

Abstract

Germinal studies have described the prevalence of sex-based harassment in high schools and its associations with adverse outcomes in adolescents. Studies have focused on students, with little attention given to the actions of high schools themselves. Though journalists responded to the #MeToo movement by reporting on schools’ betrayal of students who report misconduct, this topic remains understudied by researchers. Gender harassment is characterized by sexist remarks, sexually crude or offensive behavior, gender policing, work-family policing, and infantilization. Institutional betrayal is characterized by the failure of an institution, such as a school, to protect individuals dependent on the institution. We investigated high school gender harassment and institutional betrayal reported retrospectively by 535 current undergraduates. Our primary aim was to investigate whether institutional betrayal moderates the relationship between high school gender harassment and current trauma symptoms. In our pre-registered hypotheses ( https://osf.io/3ds8k ), we predicted that (1) high school gender harassment would be associated with more current trauma symptoms and (2) institutional betrayal would moderate this relationship such that high levels of institutional betrayal would be associated with a stronger association between high school gender harassment and current trauma symptoms. Consistent with our first hypothesis, high school gender harassment significantly predicted college trauma-related symptoms. An equation that included participant gender, race, age, high school gender harassment, institutional betrayal, and the interaction of gender harassment and institutional betrayal also significantly predicted trauma-related symptoms. Contrary to our second hypothesis, the interaction term was non-significant. However, institutional betrayal predicted unique variance in current trauma symptoms above and beyond the other variables. These findings indicate that both high school gender harassment and high school institutional betrayal are independently associated with trauma symptoms, suggesting that intervention should target both phenomena.

COVID-19-related institutional betrayal associated with trauma symptoms among undergraduate students

“…Our second hypothesis was supported. Similar to prior research on institutional betrayal in different contexts [ 4 , 7 , 11 ], we found that experiences of institutional betrayal are associated with symptoms of general trauma symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, sleep problems). We also found that experiences of institutional betrayal are associated with COVID-19-specific intrusion and avoidance cognitions (e.g., intrusive thoughts about COVID-19, spending a lot of time trying to avoid thinking about COVID-19).…”

“…The relationships between COVID-19-related institutional betrayal, current trauma symptoms, and COVID-19-specific cognitions persisted, even when controlling for gender and familiarity with someone infected with COVID-19. Similar unique associations between institutional betrayal and symptoms of distress have been replicated in numerous other studies [ 4 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…COVID-19-related institutional betrayal among college students is particularly important to acknowledge and measure, given that prior research suggests that specific harm is created when trusted institutions fail to fulfill promises. Experiences of institutional betrayal in other contexts have been found to be associated with numerous negative mental health outcomes, including trauma symptoms [ 4 , 11 ], physical health outcomes [ 12 ], suicidal ideation [ 7 ], and disengagement from healthcare services [ 5 ]. If students experience COVID-19-related institutional betrayal, they may be also be experience similar outcomes.…”

Identification of psychological features and development of an assessment tool for event-related psychological distress after experiencing non-traumatic stressful events

“…Moreover, since we assessed non-traumatic events only, the severity of the events may also largely differ among each person. Recent studies reported that PTSD-like symptoms were observed in people distressed by interpersonal problems including various kinds of harassment (e.g., power and sexual harassment at school [ 40 ] and the workplace [ 41 ]) and school bullying issues among children [ 42 ]. Even if these stressful events do not objectively meet the traumatic ones required for diagnosing PTSD, these stressful events and the related distressed conditions are serious.…”

Workplace Assessment Scale: Pilot Validation Study

“…The Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire (IBQ) was first developed to measure institutional betrayal in individuals who have experienced sexual assault [4]. Since then, the scale has been adapted to assess institutional betrayal in additional settings: IBQ-Health measures institutional betrayal in healthcare systems, IBQ-Climate measures institutional betrayal in school settings, and IBQ-Covid measures experiences regarding institutional protocols and policies regarding COVID-19 [12][13][14]. There is currently no appropriate scale to assess feelings of betrayal, humiliation, or embitterment in the first responder population.…”