Profiles in coping: responses to sexual harassment across persons, organizations, and cultures.
This study explicates the complexity of sexual harassment coping behavior among 4 diverse samples of working women: (a) working-class Hispanic Americans, (b) working-class Anglo Americans, (c) professional Turks, and (d) professional Anglo Americans. K-means cluster analysis revealed 3 common harassment coping profiles: (a) detached, (b) avoidant negotiating, and (c) support seeking. The authors then tested an integrated framework of coping profile determinants, involving social power, stressor severity, social support, and culture. Analysis of variance, chi-square, and discriminant function results identified significant determinants at each of the 4 levels of this ecological model. These findings underscore the importance of focusing on whole patterns of experience--and considering influences at the level of the individual employee and multiple levels of the surrounding context--when studying how women cope with workplace sexual harassment.
Cortina
Lilia M
LM
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. lilia@umich.edu
Wasti
S Arzu
SA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015279:Organizational Culture; D017406:Sexual Harassment / Q000523:psychology*; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology; D017132:Workplace