Recognition of situations of sexual harassment in medical students at the Concepción Campus of the Andrés Bello University, Chile

Abstract

Introduction: sexual harassment is defined as unwanted or non-consensual sexual behavior that occurs in verbal, non-verbal, physical, psychological, or visual forms and is experienced at different ages and contexts. Aim: to describe the level of recognition of situations of sexual harassment in medical students at the Andrés Bello University, Concepción, Chile. Methods: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A total of 94 students from first to seventh grade participated voluntarily and anonymously. Data were obtained through the application of an online survey and then analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics v.20 software. Results: the age was 23,1 ± 1,9 years. Most of them were in their third year of college and identified as women. A total of 42,6 % (n=40) admitted to having suffered sexual harassment at some point on or off the university premises, with the most frequent situation being the direct receipt of offensive jokes, jokes or compliments with sexual intent (51,1 %; n=48). Women were the ones who most recognized situations of sexual harassment. Conclusions: a considerable proportion of the participants, mostly women, acknowledged situations of sexual harassment