Despite increasing awareness, sexual harassment remains a significant concern in the workplace. The enduring problem of sexual harassment seems to persist due to a lack of clarity regarding what behaviors qualify as harassment. Furthermore, the interpretation of these behaviors is influenced by contextual and relational factors, contributing to the complexity of addressing and preventing such incidents. This study builds on existing research by investigating how the severity of sexually harassing behavior, the response from the target, and the gender of the participant contribute to labeling behavior as sexual harassment. Using an online experimental scenario-based survey, 1,700 (850 female, 850 male) currently employed participants were presented with a single workplace scenario that manipulated the severity of the sexual harassment behavior and the target\'s response. Participants were then asked to assess the appropriateness of the behavior, label it as sexual harassment or not, and rate their confidence in their labeling decision. The results revealed that less severe sexual harassment behaviors, targets who displayed interest, and male participants were more likely to perceive the behavior as less inappropriate and were less inclined to label it as sexual harassment. These findings have implications for shaping the definition of sexual harassment and designing training programs for heightened awareness.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of technology-facilitated sexual harassment (TFSH) and its relationships to adverse mental health issues among young adult female students in Bangladesh.
METHODS: We collected data for this cross-sectional study from July to September 2022 from 455 female students at a large university in Bangladesh. The prevalence of TFSH, self-reported distress, stress, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts was assessed. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to assess the identified relationships.
RESULTS: This study found that nearly half of the respondents (46.1%) reported having experienced TFSH. The prevalence of suicidal thoughts, moderate to severe distress, stress, anxiety, and depression was 34.9%, 47.7%, 78.2%, 36.9%, and 59.8%, respectively. Results also reported that, compared to the respondents who did not experience TFSH, those who experienced it were more likely to report adverse mental health issues with higher odds. For example, after controlling for sociodemographic variables, the odds of moderate to severe distress (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 3.70; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.36-5.78), stress (AOR: 2.09; 95% CI: 1.25-3.49), anxiety (AOR: 3.80; 95% CI: 2.40-6.03), depression (AOR: 3.32; 95% CI: 2.12-5.18), and having suicidal thoughts (AOR: 4.86; 95% CI: 2.29-7.89) were higher among female students experiencing TFSH than those who did not experience it.
CONCLUSIONS: TFSH harassment among young adult female students is common and significantly associated with different adverse mental health issues. Attempts at primary intervention for improving mental health status are required to take TFSH into consideration.

The ubiquity of public-space sexual harassment (PSH) of women in the global South, particularly in South Asia, is both a public health and gender equity issue. This study examined men\'s experiences with and perspectives on PSH of women in three countries with shared cultural norms and considerable gender inequalities - Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The three-country survey in 2021-2022 was completed by 237 men who were generally young, urban, single, well-educated, and middle-/high-income. Among the 53.3% who witnessed PSH, 80% reported intervening to stop it or help the victim. A substantial share of men worried about PSH, and bore emotional, time, and financial costs as they took precautionary or restorative measures to help women in their families avoid PSH or deal with its consequences. Most respondents articulated potential gains for men, women, and society if PSH no longer existed. However, a non-negligible share of participants held patriarchal gender attitudes that are often used to justify harassment, and a small share did not favour legal and community sanctions. Many called for stricter legal sanctions and enforcement, culture change, and education. Men\'s perspectives offer insights for prevention of harassment and mitigation of its consequences.

Dating violence is a pervasive issue that has become increasingly complex to address as technologies mediating interpersonal connections become more widely utilized. The incidence and ways in which violence manifests through digital media are not fully understood. This study aimed to better understand the relationship between geolocational dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr and technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) among university students. An anonymous survey was electronically administered to a convenience sample of 1,000 undergraduates at a large private university in the southeastern United States. Participants indicated their dating app usage and the frequency of specific TFSV experiences they had encountered. Chi-square tests were conducted to identify relationships between demographic characteristics and experiences of TFSV. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to predict TFSV based on respondent characteristics. A total of 910 respondents completed the survey, with more than half (54%) of respondents reporting some type of TFSV while using dating apps. Women and non-heterosexual students experience significantly more TFSV than male and heterosexual students. While participants\' academic year (first-year through senior) and participation in extracurricular activities were not associated with TFSV, dating app selection was a significant predictor of the likelihood to report TFSV, with Grindr users being significantly more likely to report. Major Implications Due to the near-ubiquitous use of dating apps in this population, interventions to address campus social norms, comprehensive sexuality education, and consent education, and improved regulation of TFSV by technology companies should be implemented- especially for cisgender, heterosexual women, and gender and sexual minorities.

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence, age and gender differences, and psychological outcomes (anxiety, depression and self-esteem) related to being a victim of different forms of online gendered violence (OGV), namely: digital sexual harassment; physical appearance-based violence; gender role-based violence; and anti-feminism violence.
2,471 respondents (71.1 % women) aged 18-79 years (M = 27.28, SD = 10.08) completed self-report measures.
The results showed that 82.6 % of respondents had experienced at least one form of OGV in the last 12 months. The most frequent form of OGV was digital sexual harassment (66.7%), followed by physical appearance-based violence (60.7%), anti-feminism violence (60.7%) and gender role-based violence (25.4%). OGV was significantly higher among women (88%) than men (68.6%), as well as among younger adults. Finally, the results showed that these forms of violence were associated with worse psychological outcomes, especially for younger respondents and for women.
OGV is a common phenomenon that may be related to lower psychological well-being. This study provides relevant information that can shape the design of prevention and intervention programs for this form of digital violence.

The Gender Inequality Index is a country-level measure of gender inequality based on women\'s levels of reproductive health, social and political empowerment, and labor-market representation. In two studies, we tested the validity of the GII-S, a state-level measure of gender inequality in the USA. In Study 1, the GII-S was associated with objective and subjective measures of wellness among women, including life satisfaction, financial well-being, and perceptions of safety. GII-S was not associated with the Gini coefficient, a well-established measure of economic inequality, suggesting that gender and economic disparities represent distinct aspects of social inequality. Study 2 tested the link between GII-S scores and collective action-specifically, participation in the #MeToo movement promoting awareness of sexual harassment and violence against women. Analysis of geo-localized messages on the Twitter social media platform reveals that higher GII-S scores were associated with fewer tweets containing the #MeToo hashtag. Moreover, GII-S was associated with state-level political orientation: the more conservative a state, the higher its level of gender inequality. Results are discussed in terms of possible socio-cognitive processes underpinning the association between gender inequality and sensitivity to violence against women.

BACKGROUND: Many people experience forms of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the context of their work. This includes a wide range of experiences, from subtle expressions of hostility to physical assault, that can also be of a sexual nature (e.g., sexual harassment or assault). This systematic review aimed to summarize findings about the prospective associations of work-related GBVH with people\'s health and occupational situation.
METHODS: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE and PsycINFO were searched for prospective studies in English from 1990 to May 24, 2023. Studies were included if they concerned a working population, exposure to any form of GBVH in the work context, and a health outcome or manifest occupational outcome. Quality was assessed with a modified version of the Cochrane \'Tool to Assess Risk of Bias in Cohort Studies\', and studies assessed as low quality were excluded from the narrative synthesis. For the narrative synthesis, we grouped the results by similar exposures and outcomes and reported the strength and statistical significance of the associations.
RESULTS: Of the 1 937 screened records, 29 studies were included in the narrative synthesis. Studies were mainly conducted in the USA and northern Europe and investigated exposure to sexual violence or harassment (SVH). Only two included studies investigated non-sexual kinds of GBVH. Consistently, studies showed associations of work-related SVH with poor mental health and there were indications of an association with hazardous substance use. There was no consistent evidence for an association of SVH with subsequent sickness absence, and there were too few studies concerning physical health and occupational outcomes to synthesize the results.
CONCLUSIONS: There is consistent evidence of work-related SVH as a risk factor for subsequent poor mental health. There is no indication that the health consequences of SVH differ between women and men, although women are more often affected. There is a need for conceptual consistency, the consideration of non-sexual behaviors and prospective studies that test clear hypotheses about the temporal sequence of events.

BACKGROUND: In a working environment that is predominantly male, very tough physically, with a difficult working environment, occupational exposures and working, verbal and physical aggression can be more frequent than in other sectors. Fishing, merchant shipping and yachting are all sectors where fitness to sail is reassessed every year by doctors in the Seafarers\' Health Service. Seafarers are increasingly reporting insulting, violent or sexist behaviour. The main types of abuse seen on board can be verbal and/or physical aggression, humiliation, whether in private or in front of others. Sexual harassment of women is a very worrying subject.
METHODS: It was a retrospective observational study which is part of the professional monitoring of seafarers. The target population was adult seafarers coming for a fitness to sail visit. The group was recruited from seafarers aged over 18 who were being monitored by one of the seafarers\' health services (or local centres). The inclusion period was 4 months between January and April 2023. All the information was collected using a self-questionnaire developed from the questionnaires of the Surveillance Médicale des Expositions des Salariés au Risques Professionnels (SUMER) for health status, job satisfaction and the European mini-module, verbal and physical aggression and psychological violence at work (based on the Leymann questionnaire), sexual violence and aggression based on the sexual harassment questionnaire and the PCLS-5 scale validated and translated into French to assess post-traumatic stress. The population studied was therefore 788 sailors.
RESULTS: The study population was predominantly male (82.3%). The average age was 41.4 years (standard deviation = 11.7). 46.7% of seafarers estimate being in very good health. During the past 12 months, overall, 24.5% of seafarers disclaimed having been victim in work-related context of a verbal aggression, with a significant difference according to the gender (21.1% for men and 41.0% for women). During the last 12 months, overall, 3.2% of seafarers have been victim in work-related context of a physical aggression (2.6% for men and 5.8% for women, NS), whereas 10.9% of seafarers reported hostile behaviour at present. Twenty per cent of seafarers reported sexual harassment in the last 12 months. During the entire working life of seafarers, 65.5% of women and 38.2% of men reported sexual harassment, and 38.8% of seafarers stated that they had experienced at least one traumatic event in the last 12 months.
CONCLUSIONS: A quarter of seafarers say they have been the victim of verbal or physical aggression at work in the last twelve months. These figures are high, and higher than those of the global survey on violence and harassment at work carried out by the International Labour Organization. One of the most alarming results of our study is the overexposure of women working in the maritime industry to the risk of physical, verbal or sexual assault of any kind. Indeed, in all the questions concerning the experience of verbal and physical aggression, the number of women victims is twice as high as that of their male colleagues, and this difference is statistically significant. As far as prevention is concerned, it seems that an effort is needed in terms of information, since only one seafarer in two knows the procedure to follow in the event of aggression within their shipyard. Communication between shipowners and seafarers needs to be stepped up to ensure that everyone is familiar with the procedures.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the gender-specific impact of recent exposure to different forms of sexual harassment and sexual violence (SHV) on depression and anxiety symptoms three, six, and nine months later.
METHODS: We recruited 2229 women and 1274 men studying at Swedish universities and followed them with web-surveys every three months over one year. We estimated mean differences (MDs) of depression and anxiety symptoms between exposed and unexposed at each follow-up, adjusting for prior SHV, prior depression and anxiety symptoms and potential confounders.
RESULTS: For women, sexual harassment (wide subjective definition) was associated with higher symptom levels of depression (MD 1.0 [95% CI: 0.3; 1.7]) and anxiety (MD 0.8 [95% CI: 0.3; 1.4]) three months later. Unwanted sexual attention was associated with higher symptom levels of anxiety three (MD 0.5 [95% CI: 0.1; 0.8]) and six months later (MD 0.4 [95% CI: 0.0; 0.7]). Exposure to sex against ones will was associated with higher depression symptoms three (MD 1.7 [95% CI: 0.1;3.4]), and six months later (MD 3.1 [95% CI: 1.0; 5.2]). Trends indicated that associations with subsequent mental health differed between forms of SHV among women, and that most associations were more pronounced in temporal proximity to the exposures. For men, we refrain from interpreting the results since they showed high variability and were not robust to sensitivity analyses using multiple imputation to account for missing outcome data.
CONCLUSIONS: Among women, several forms of SHV were associated with higher subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms.

This study examines how cybercrimes impact women\'s well-being in digital spaces, focusing on online harassment, cyberbullying, misinformation, and non-consensual exposure to explicit content. Survey data from 200 respondents show concerning trends: 102 experienced online harassment, 63 encountered false health information, 47 were approached to sexting, and 28 were exposed to pornography without consent. Qualitative insights highlight emotional distress. Urgent actions include awareness-raising, education, and tailored support networks. These findings underscore the need to combat cybercrimes and empower women online.
Cette étude examine comment les cybercrimes affectent le bien-être des femmes dans les espaces numériques, en se concentrant sur le harcèlement en ligne, la cyberintimidation, la désinformation et l\'exposition non consentie à du contenu explicite. Les données d\'une enquête auprès de 200 répondants montrent des tendances préoccupantes: 102 ont subi du harcèlement en ligne, 63 ont rencontré de fausses informations sur la santé, 47 ont été sollicitées pour du sexting et 28 ont été exposées à de la pornographie sans consentement. Les perspectives qualitatives soulignent la détresse émotionnelle. Des actions urgentes incluent la sensibilisation, l\'éducation et des réseaux de soutien adaptés. Ces résultats soulignent la nécessité de lutter contre les cybercrimes et d\'autonomiser les femmes en ligne.