44-4 The Relationship between Sexual Harassment Experiences and Depression: Traumatic Reaction as Mediator with Gender as Moderator
This study aims to investigate the relationship between sexual harassments experiences (SHE), depression, and traumatic reaction of college students in Taiwan, and the influences of gender on SHE and their relation with depression or traumatic reaction. Data were collected through a questionnaire including participants' demographic information, Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (SHQ), BDI-II and Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Index (PTSDRI). Among 682 valid questionnaires, 480 college students (146 males and 334 females) reported that they have been sexually harassed, and these cases would be used for data analysis later. The results showed that the factor structure of SHE for Taiwanese college students was similar to that found in Western society. In addition to sexual coercion, gender harassment, and unwanted sexual attention factors, the Taiwanese sample had an additional physical harassment factor. Among these factors, females experienced significantly more unwanted sexual attention than males, but there were no significant sex differences for all other factors. Furthermore, females reported more traumatic reaction and depressive symptoms, but this was not the case for males who experienced more SHE. Therefore, gender is a moderator between SHE and traumatic reaction as well as between SHE and depressive symptoms. Moreover, path analysis showed that traumatic reaction completely mediated the association between SHE and depressive symptoms for Taiwanese female college students, while the mediation effect was not found for Taiwanese male students. Hence, females are more likely to develop traumatic reaction than males after experiencing SHE; and if the traumatic reaction was not properly treated, depression would follow.
Keywords
depression ； gender ； sexual harassment ； traumatic reaction
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