Sexual Harassment Training and Reporting in Athletic Training Students

Abstract

Context: Sexual harassment is a growing concern in higher education. Athletic training students should feel safe in their programs, whether in the didactic or clinical setting. Though the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education creates standards to keep the students safe, there are none regarding sexual harassment training for athletic training students. Objective: To determine the rate of sexual harassment training in athletic training students, with a secondary purpose of determining, if indeed sexual harassment training occurs, whether it is associated with the college or university or is offered through an outside entity. Design: Survey. Setting: Online. Patients or Other Participants: Eight hundred eighty-five athletic training students (613 females, 272 males). Main Outcome Measure(s): Data were analyzed through SurveyMonkey, and the statistical software R. Frequency counts and percentages were determined. A Fisher exact test was run to determine if there was a relationship between the athletic training student's current knowledge and whether the athletic training student had received harassment training. Results: The study found that more than 50% of male and female athletic training students had not recieved sexual harassment training, whereas 75% of all respondents stated that they knew what resources were available to report issues of sexual harrassment. The odds of a person not knowing what resources were available to report harassment and not having training were 6 times the odds of those who had training and did not know what resources were available. Conclusions: Our study emphasizes the need for sexual harassment training in athletic training programs. Athletic training students need to know what sexual harassment is and who to report it to. Additionally, they should not feel threatened by reporting any instances of harassment.