Louise F. Fitzgerald - US grants

This is a Shannon Award providing partial support for research projects that fall short of the assigned institute's funding range but are in the margin of excellence. The Shannon award is intended to provide support to test the feasibility of the approach; develop further tests and refine research techniques; perform secondary analysis of available data sets; or conduct discrete projects that can demonstrate the PI's research capabilities or lend additional weight to an already meritorious application. Further scientific data for the CRISP System are unavailable at this time.

Sexual harassment has been shown to affect lives of millions of women and many men. Despite recent research progress, virtually nothing is yet known about the psychological process underlying psychic harm, or the typical course of harm and recovery. Although clinical data suggest damage can be profound and long-lasting, no studies of its nature and duration have been undertaken, nor do there exist any empirical studies of the factors that facilitate or inhibit recovery. The specific aims of the present project are to identify critical aspects of harassment leading to psychological damage; test a psycho-social model of this process through prospective study; and identify factors facilitating and inhibiting recovery. Grounded in a cognitive framework for understanding victimization and recovery, the design is based on longitudinal analysis of: (1) a community sample of 1500 young women and 500 young men entering the workforce at various levels; (2) a longitudinal follow-up of 1000 female participants in class action law suits, and (3) 100 female plaintiffs in individual law suits. Sample A incorporates women and men entering the workforce in the summer/fall of 2001; sampling is based on a stratified multi-stage cluster strategy across high schools, community colleges, and universities. Sampling from three educational levels ensures a broad cross section of the workforce, whereas the urban sites ensure inclusion of a large number of racial and ethnic minority participants. Male participants (n=500) are drawn mainly from high school graduates, as the literature suggest that male targets are most likely to be found in blue-collar non-technical. All participants will completed a comprehensive assessment of their experiences and psychological status that serves as the baseline for the recovery analyses. Sample C includes 100 women who filed individual suit against their employers for sexual harassment, and underwent a comprehensive psychological evaluation. These samples include participants across the entire spectrum of victimization, up to and including sexual assault. In addition, they represent various levels of adversarial legal involvement (none; non-contested settlement; contested binding arbitration; deposition and discovery; and actual trial), thus allowing a unique opportunity to examine the possible iatrogenic effects of seeking legal redress.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a serious and widespread form of sexual victimization that until recently has been largely ignored. Anecdotal accounts, clinical reports and some survey data have tentatively linked harassment to a variety of negative outcomes, including job loss, decreased morale, absenteeism and so forth. Victims have been reported to suffer a wide variety of psychological and health-related symptoms, including depression, anxiety, headaches, sleep disturbance, and gastrointestinal disorders (Koss, 1990). In pilot research, we found decreased job satisfaction, increased anxiety, and increased depression, for harassed women. The objective of the proposed study is to formally examine the effect of workplace harassment on women's mental and physical health, as well as their occupational adjustment. The specific aims of the project are: 1) To assess the impact and outcomes of sexual harassment and to chart their course over time; 2) To identify individual and organizational factors that increase vulnerability to harassment and, especially, its outcomes; 3) To test a theoretical model of the impact of sexual harassment using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The research utilizes a combined cross-sectional, longitudinal design involving 4 occupationally and racially diverse samples of women (N=1200). Computerized interviews and paper-and-pencil surveys will be used to collect self-report data to be analyzed via the LISREL VIII approach to structural equation modeling. Variables assessed include job-related factors (including sexual harassment history), personal characteristics, coping methods, organizational characteristics and three sets of outcome measures: job-related outcomes, psychological outcomes (including standardized measures of psychiatric symptoms, social adjustment and subjective well-being) and health outcomes (including physical health and health satisfaction). Data from comparable samples of men will also be collected and analyzed similarly. In-depth interviews will be conducted with a subset of participants to develop a richer and more complex picture of sexual harassment, victimization and its outcomes.

Sexual harassment has been shown to affect lives of millions of women and many men. Despite recent research progress, virtually nothing is yet known about the psychological process underlying psychic harm, or the typical course of harm and recovery. Although clinical data suggest damage can be profound and long-lasting, no studies of its nature and duration have been undertaken, nor do there exist any empirical studies of the factors that facilitate or inhibit recovery. The specific aims of the present project are to identify critical aspects of harassment leading to psychological damage; test a psycho-social model of this process through prospective study; and identify factors facilitating and inhibiting recovery. Grounded in a cognitive framework for understanding victimization and recovery, the design is based on longitudinal analysis of: (1) a community sample of 1500 young women and 500 young men entering the workforce at various levels; (2) a longitudinal follow-up of 1000 female participants in class action law suits, and (3) 100 female plaintiffs in individual law suits. Sample A incorporates women and men entering the workforce in the summer/fall of 2001; sampling is based on a stratified multi-stage cluster strategy across high schools, community colleges, and universities. Sampling from three educational levels ensures a broad cross section of the workforce, whereas the urban sites ensure inclusion of a large number of racial and ethnic minority participants. Male participants (n=500) are drawn mainly from high school graduates, as the literature suggest that male targets are most likely to be found in blue-collar non-technical. All participants will completed a comprehensive assessment of their experiences and psychological status that serves as the baseline for the recovery analyses. Sample C includes 100 women who filed individual suit against their employers for sexual harassment, and underwent a comprehensive psychological evaluation. These samples include participants across the entire spectrum of victimization, up to and including sexual assault. In addition, they represent various levels of adversarial legal involvement (none; non-contested settlement; contested binding arbitration; deposition and discovery; and actual trial), thus allowing a unique opportunity to examine the possible iatrogenic effects of seeking legal redress.