Perceptions of sexual harassment among Vietnamese middle and high school students

Abstract

Sexual harassment awareness is defined in this article as a comprehension of sexual harassment, which includes identifying its manifestations, causes, repercussions, and hazards. In 2021, research on middle school and high school students' perceptions of sexual harassment will be conducted using a questionnaire survey method with 621 junior high and high school students in the inner and outer suburbs of three cities in Vietnam. The research findings indicate that students responding to the question most accurately identify physical sexual harassment, whereas some forms of verbal or non-verbal harassment can be misconstrued with teasing. Sanctions for sexual harassment are lax, the primary source of sexual harassment. According to students' understanding, public areas and public transportation are the locations most prone to sexual harassment, while strangers are the subjects most prone to perpetrate sexual harassment. Sexual harassment has a detrimental effect on students' physical, mental, and personal functioning. According to the T-Test results, male students perceive physical and mental repercussions, as well as penalties for personal activities, more vividly than female students. Middle school students outperform high school students in detecting prospective sexual offenders, but high school students outperform junior high school students in recognizing the physical repercussions of sexual harassment.