Jan-Louw Kotzé and Pat Frazier Examine Sexual Harassment Among Undergraduates

New research by alum Jan-Louw Kotzé (PhD, ‘25) and Patricia Frazier, faculty, has been published in the Journal of American College Health. In the article “Characteristics of sexual harassment across locations among U.S. undergraduate students,” Kotzé and Frazier explored differences in experiences of sexual harassment across different settings among undergraduate students in the United States.

For this study, they asked 1,164 undergraduate students from 408 U.S. higher education institutions to report on any sexual harassment experiences from the previous seven days. In total, students cited 4,362 incidents, with 59.8% of students reporting that they experienced at least one incident of sexual harassment during that time.

Findings showed that students experienced harassment in different ways depending on where it occurred. When students reported experiencing sexual harassment outside, it was more often unwanted sexual attention. When students were online, the harassment was typically identity-based (e.g., racialized harassment ). In contrast, when students were in academic or housing settings, the two types of sexual harassment were more equally distributed. These findings suggest that schools may need different prevention strategies for different settings, instead of using only one general approach. The article also recommends that schools and local, state, and federal groups work together to create stronger and more targeted prevention efforts.

Jan-Louw Kotzé, PhD, is a PhD alum of the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Patricia Frazier, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Teaching Professor in the Department of Psychology, and director of the Stress and Trauma Lab at the University of Minnesota.