Deals with the sexual harassments in adolescents

1. SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN
ADOLESCENTS
Dr Sajeena S
ICSSR, Post Doctoral Research Fellow
SPS, MG University

2. ■ Sexual harassment harms the sexual integrity of teens in
their peer relationships.
■ Being a victim of sexual harassment is likely to affect a
teen’s academic performance or work ability and may
create a hostile or threatening atmosphere for the teen.
■ In fact, sexual harassment coming from one teen to
another is a type of bullying.
■ Sexual harassment of teens can occur anywhere—in
middle and high schools, in community (for example,
neighbourhoods or the internet) or even in homes.

3. Some examples of sexual harassment that adolescents may be likely to see or
experience:
■ • Continually asking someone out when they have communicated a lack of
interest
■ • Unwanted requests for social or sexual activity
■ • Making sexual jokes, gestures, or remarks
■ • Inappropriate touching (brushing up against, grabbing, patting, or
pinching in a sexual manner)
■ • Spreading sexual rumours about someone
■ • Making comments about a person’s body, clothing, sexual orientation, or
sexual behaviour
■ • Intimidation (blocking or cornering someone in a sexual way) or assault
(pulling clothing off or down, forcing someone to do something sexual such
as kissing)
■ • Inappropriate sexual remarks or questions in “cyberspace” (instant
messaging, e-mail, chat rooms)

4. How Sexual Harassment Affects Adolescents
■ The effects of being victimized by sexual harassment include:
■ • Distractions from school works
■ • Increased likelihood of missing school and withdrawing from school when
harassed
■ • Confusion and upset to teenage girls who experience sexual harassment online
■ • A decline in academic performance when sexual harassment occurs in schools
■ • Victims becoming perpetrators of sexual harassment
■ • Experiencing negative emotions such as anger, betrayal, depression, and anxiety
■ • Feeling a lack of control over one’s life and a drop in self-esteem
■ • Psychosomatic stress symptoms such as headaches, stomach pains, insomnia,
and irritability
■ • Suicidal thoughts, early dating, substance use, and feeling unsafe in school for
both boys and girls, as well as self-harming behaviours and risky dieting for girls.

5. ■ How to Handle Sexual Harassment Among Adolescents
■ • Don’t be afraid to talk about sexual harassment with youth in a safe setting
(public, and where youth outnumber adults), using age-appropriate, concrete
language. For example, discuss types of sexual harassment and how it affects
teens in your educational programs. Ask youth open-ended questions and refrain
from judgment in the event they share about incidents that happened to them or
their friends. Ask youth to think about how they felt and consider ways to prevent
future incidents at the interpersonal and community levels.
■ • Provide information on sexual harassment and conduct workshops on the topic
for youth, youth workers, and educators to increase awareness and action.
■ • Pay attention to when adolescents in your care appear distressed. If he or she is
a victim of sexual harassment
■ • Provide access to and make yourself aware of psychological services, such as
support groups, counseling, or psychotherapy for teen victims and perpetrators of
sexual harassment.
■ • Don’t be afraid to enforce institutional and activity specific dress codes-which are
present for youth safety.

6. ■ In the event a youth wants to open up discussion one on-one with you
about an experience, preferably bring in another adult. Prior to this, make
sure you are aware of local counseling options to whom youth can be
referred. Make sure adults and youth are matched by gender (e.g., female
adults with female youth) when sensitive discussions about any area of
sexuality occur.
■ • Promote awareness campaigns and intervention strategies with other
adults in your youth organization, especially for the early high school years
when sexual harassment has been linked to negative outcomes several
years later
■ • Whether in the school, the workplace, or other community organizations,
work to promote a culture with zero tolerance for sexual harassment. It is
not just about changing the perpetrator’s behaviour, but increasing
awareness and bystander action to prevent sexual harassment.
■ Be aware of likely places and times for patterns of sexual harassment to
occur (for example, the school bus, a classroom, an overnight trip setting
with low adult supervision) and work to prevent the risk of incidents in
those settings.

7. ■ A clear understanding of the physiological changes has been specified
and along with that the myths related to body mechanisms have been
dispelled.
■ Problem-solving skill has also been introduced in this section.
■ The textbook tries to guide the teachers through the difficult phase when
the teachers have to discuss about sex, sexuality and reproduction.
■ The teachers are asked to be sensitive of the fact that adolescents may
be “uncomfortable” to discuss sex and sexuality openly.
■ Therefore, the teachers have to create a supportive environment in the
classroom that will help the adolescents to open up.
■ To create suitable atmosphere the teachers can separate the boys and
the girls.
■ The teachers should also take care of the fact that no student is
ridiculed for his or her opinion.

8. ■ Teachers are also instructed to held detail discussion on the risky
behaviour that may lead to HIV/AIDS/STIs, to inform the students on
how to protect themselves.
■ Teenage pregnancy has also been included in this discussion.
■ Issues such as being a victim of sexual assault, bullying, Eve/Adam
teasing has also been included in this section.

9. ■ Prevent sexual abuse:
■ Include training skills for refusing sex, improving communication, and
resolving conflict in all young adult reproductive health education
efforts, as well as in other appropriate forums.
■ Create societal awareness by bringing the issue of sexual abuse into
the public domain.
■ Target policymakers, parents, teachers, community leaders, police and
the media with educational campaigns.
■ Screen for Sexual Abuse: Train health providers, teachers and peer
educators to identify individuals who have been victims of sexual abuse
by including questions about abuse in health assessments.