MEASURING SEXUAL HARASSMENT - THEORETICAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC ADVANCES

This article describes a program of research designed to yield a conce ptually grounded, psychometrically sound instrument for assessing the incidence and prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace. Follow ing the specification of a theoretical framework that is consistent wi th both legal guidelines and psychological research, we review the dev elopment and evaluation of a three-dimensional model of sexual harassm ent (gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion ). Based on this model, we describe the development of a revised versi on of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerdd et al., 198 8). Following extensive pilot work, the instrument was field tested in a large regulated utility. Data from 448 employed women (professional , technical, clerical and blue collar workers) support the reliability of the scales, and confirmatory factor analysis in this new sample co nfirms the stability and generalizability of the theoretical model. Fo llowing a brief review of validity data recently reported in the liter ature, implications for further measurement improvements are discussed .