Correlational Study of Athletes’ Marital Status, Level of Education and Perception of Gender Harassment, Unwanted Sexual Attention and Sexual Coercion in Southern Nigerian Universities (Published)
The study was a correlational study of athletes’ marital status, level of education and perception of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion in southern Nigerian universities using survey design on 946 athletes as sample. A questionnaire with .93 as overall reliability co-efficient, and inter-scale reliability indices of α = .76 (gender harassment); α = .85 (unwanted sexual attention), and α = .91 (sexual coercion). Mean and simple regression statistic were used for data analysis. Results revealed that single (i.e. unmarried), married, undergraduate and postgraduate athletes perceived gender harassment as not a problem. Single (i.e. unmarried) and undergraduate athletes perceived unwanted sexual attention as not a problem while married and postgraduate athletes perceived it as a problem. Again, single (i.e. unmarried), married, undergraduate and postgraduate athletes perceived sexual coercion as a problem. Athletes’ marital status and level of education had significant relationship with perception of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion. It was recommended that sexual harassment intervention programmes should be designed and mounted by governmental and non-governmental agencies, sports researchers/stakeholders and should focus more on married and postgraduate athletes. Sports participants should be made to understand what constitutes sexual harassment to athletes especially to married and postgraduate athletes through mass media, seminars, workshops and conferences by sports stakeholders.
Keywords: Athletes, Gender Harassment, Level Of Education, Marital Status, Sexual Coercion., Unwanted Sexual Attention