Sexual jokes at school and psychological complaints: Student- and class-level associations

Abstract

Background: Students who are subjected to sexual harassment at school report lower psychological well-being than those who are not exposed. Yet, it is possible that the occurrence of sexual harassment in the school class is also stressful for those who are not directly targeted, with potential negative effects on well-being for all students. Aim: The aim was to examine whether exposure to sexual jokes at the student level and at the class level was associated with students’ psychological complaints, and if these associations differed by gender. Method: Data from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) of 2017/18 was used, with information from students aged 11, 13 and 15 years ( N=3720 distributed across 209 classes). Psychological health complaints were constructed as an index based on four items. Exposure to sexual jokes at the student level was measured by one item, and at the class level as the class proportion of students exposed to sexual jokes, in per cent. Two-level linear regression analyses were performed. Results: Students who had been exposed to sexual jokes at school reported higher levels of psychological complaints, especially boys. Furthermore, the class proportion of students who had been exposed to sexual jokes was also associated with psychological complaints, even when adjusting for student-level exposure to sexual jokes, gender, grade and class size. Conclusions: Sexual jokes seem to be harmful for those who are directly exposed, but may also affect indirectly exposed students negatively. Thus, a school climate free from sexual jokes may profit all students.

Sexual jokes at school and students’ life satisfaction: findings from the 2017/18 Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study

“…The total sample included 4294 students. The response rate at the school level was 47% and the response rate among students in the participating schools was 89% [ 1 , 14 ]. Due to anonymity of the responding schools, we were not able to examine if there was any systematic bias in the school-level non-response.…”

“…Sexual harassment may be verbal or non-verbal, and one type of verbal harassment is sexual jokes [ 1 ]. Verbal sexual harassment may be expressed in terms of, e.g., unwanted comments about one’s body [ 2 ], disturbing sexual propositions, sexually insulting epithets [ 3 ], and homophobic name-calling [ 4 ].…”

“…Prior research has shown that exposure to sexual harassment is associated with higher levels of psychological problems among adolescents [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 – 8 ]. Analyses based on the same data as the current study demonstrated that the occurrence of sexual jokes in the class was associated with higher levels of psychological health complaints even when adjusting for student level exposure to sexual jokes [ 1 ], suggesting that also those not directly targeted may be affected. On a similar note, sexual harassment in school has been reported to be perceived as problematic not only by students who are directly exposed, but also by many of the students who are non-exposed [ 9 ].…”

“…With regards to social relationships, this is true for friendships and supportive relations but also for relations characterised by strain, harassment, and bullying (including exposure to sexual jokes). By building on and extending the findings reported in our previous publication on sexual jokes and psychological complaints [ 1 ], but here instead focusing on life satisfaction as an indicator of positive mental health, the aim of the current study was to examine if exposure to sexual jokes at the student and the class level was inversely associated with students’ life satisfaction.…”

Sense of Unity and Self-Reported Health Among 15-year-Olds: Findings From the Swedish 2017/18 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Study

“…Respondents with at least one missing value on these questions were more likely to rate their relationships with teachers as relatively poor compared to respondents without missing values, otherwise no statistically significant difference was detected between the two groups (data not presented). Due to the skewed distribution, with a majority of respondents reporting a high sense of unity, the index was divided into three categories of about equal size indicating high (scores [35][36][37][38][39][40], medium (scores 31-34), and low (scores 8-30) sense of unity. More information about the instrument is found elsewhere [15].…”