School climate tolerant of sexual harassment is indirectly related to academic disengagement through peer sexual harassment and feeling safe in high school girls

Abstract

AbstractAlthough illegal, sexual harassment is endemic in US schools, with students perceiving that school officials ignore complaints of harassment. Research findings have linked school climate tolerant of sexual harassment to peer sexual harassment (PSH) and school outcomes, yet there is a need to better understand these relationships. This cross‐sectional study examined whether there was an indirect effect of school climate tolerant of sexual harassment on disengagement from school, individually and serially, through experiences of PSH victimization and feeling safe at school in a sample of 171 predominantly Black and White girls (14–19 years old) attending high school in the wider Memphis, Tennessee area. The findings supported that a climate tolerant of sexual harassment was indirectly related to school disengagement through PSH and feeling less safe. These findings add to the literature by demonstrating that a climate tolerant of sexual harassment, PSH victimization, and perceptions about personal safety are associated with harm to students’ academic outcomes in the form of school and academic disengagement. Further, the current findings suggest that a national agenda for school safety needs to consider school climate tolerant of sexual harassment in order to be effective in responding to sexual harassment and supporting student engagement.