Description

The Sexual Harassment Attitudes Questionnaire (SHAQ) is an assessment instrument designed to examine individuals’ attitudes, perceptions, and views regarding sexual harassment. It explores how participants define sexual harassment, how seriously they evaluate specific behaviors, and which social or cultural beliefs may influence their attitudes toward such behaviors in workplace and social contexts.

The questionnaire can provide useful information about how perceptions of sexual harassment are formed and how these perceptions may vary across individuals or social groups.

Aim

The primary aim of the SHAQ is to assess attitudes and opinions toward sexual harassment, with particular emphasis on identifying prejudices, stereotypes, and social beliefs that may influence the recognition or acceptance of harassing behavior.

The instrument may also contribute to understanding the social and cultural factors associated with sexual harassment and support the development of prevention and intervention strategies.

Main Dimensions

According to the available source, the SHAQ assesses three main areas:

Perception of Sexual Harassment: participants’ views about what constitutes sexual harassment and how seriously such behavior is regarded.

Attitudes and Social Beliefs: social and cultural beliefs that may influence how individuals interpret, accept, or evaluate sexual harassment.

Reaction and Resistance: individuals’ possible responses when they witness or personally experience sexual harassment.

Scoring

According to the available file, the SHAQ uses a 5-point Likert-type scale, on which participants indicate their level of agreement with statements related to sexual harassment:

1 = Strongly Disagree
to
5 = Strongly Agree.

The total score may be calculated by summing or averaging the item scores. The source states that higher scores indicate greater sensitivity to and awareness of sexual harassment.

The exact interpretation of scores should follow the official version of the instrument, particularly if reverse-scored items or separate subscales are included.

Data Analysis and Use

SHAQ data may be analyzed to examine attitudes, perceptions, and factors influencing the evaluation of sexual harassment.

Possible analytical approaches include:

Descriptive Statistics: to summarize overall levels of attitudes and perceptions.

Comparative Analyses: to investigate differences between demographic, social, or occupational groups.

Correlational Analyses: to examine relationships between attitudes toward sexual harassment and other psychological or social variables.

Factor Analysis: to explore the underlying structure of the questionnaire, provided that this is supported by the version being used.

Psychometric Evaluation

Psychometric evaluation of the SHAQ may include:

Internal Consistency: examination of the consistency of items using appropriate reliability indicators.

Test-Retest Reliability: assessment of the stability of scores over time.

Construct Validity: investigation of whether the questionnaire adequately measures theoretically expected attitudes toward sexual harassment.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity: comparison with other measures assessing related or theoretically distinct constructs.

The available source does not report specific numerical reliability or validity coefficients.

Applications

The SHAQ may be used in social psychology, organizational psychology, workplace research, gender-equality studies, harassment-prevention research, and staff education.

Results may help identify attitudes or stereotypes requiring further education and may support the development of training programs and interventions aimed at preventing sexual harassment.

The questionnaire may also be used in pre-post intervention designs to examine possible changes in attitudes, provided that such use is supported by the relevant research protocol.

References

Fitzgerald, L. F., Gelfand, M. J., & Drasgow, F. (1995). Measuring sexual harassment: Theoretical and psychometric advances. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17(4), 425–445.

Gutek, B. A. (1985). Sex and the Workplace: Impact of Sexual Behavior and Harassment on Women, Men, and Organizations. Jossey-Bass.

Ilies, R., Hauserman, N., Schwochau, S., & Stibal, J. (2003). Reported incidence rates of work-related sexual harassment in the United States: Using meta-analysis to explain reported rate disparities. Personnel Psychology, 56(3), 607–631.

Pryor, J. B. (1995). The Workplace Harassment Test: A new instrument for measuring harassment behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(4), 538–549.