Research Article | Open Access

Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities

    Sara Israa

    University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Tazvin Ijaz

    Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan


Received
28 Jan, 2020
Accepted
17 May, 2021
Published
30 Jun, 2021

This study is aimed to discuss the manifestations of street harassment among women university students of Lahore. The initial phase of the study involved conducting semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, 20 women university students were interviewed and 19 items were generated. A list of 19 items was given to experts to assess content validity. After removing repetitive statements, 15 item scale was retained and validated by experts. The final 15 item scale was administered to 150 female participants. Factor analysis showed significant KMO value and Bartlett‟s test of sphericity which indicated a significant correlation between the items with a few exceptions of weak loadings. Items 12 and 13 showed weak loadings, so these items were discarded and a 13 item scale was retained. Three-factor solutions were suggested through Principle Component Analysis via oblimin rotation and labeled as Behavioral, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was further done on a sample of 380 participants to confirm the factors obtained via Exploratory Factor Analysis which overall showed a strong construct validity of the scale and model fit after removal of three items. The final retained version of the scale consisted of 12 items. To assess the convergent validity of the indigenously developed scale, the Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (Kamal & Tariq, 1998) was used as it assessed a similar construct. The correlation coefficient of the two scales was .49 (p < .01). Cronbach alpha value of the developed scale was .82 suggesting a strong inter-item correlation. There are myriad interventions on which the study sheds light.

Street harassment is a form of harassment which is done primarily by strangers and specifically by men towards women. Street harassment includes both verbal and nonverbal behaviours and gestures and takes place in both public and semi-public places. Street harassment occurs irrespective of one’s age, race, or social class (Lord, 2009). Street harassment and sexual harassment may be similar in a way that both types of harassment have similar basis which is “unwanted” sexual attention, but the only thing that differentiates them is that street harassment is majorly done by strangers (Fairchild & Rudman, 2008). However, there is no universal definition for street harassment, it is explained through various social, cultural, and feminist perspectives.

Primarily literature suggests dividing street harassment into verbal and nonverbal forms of harassment with behavioural and physical manifestations, which mainly consists of unwanted sexual attention. Street harassment means staring; trying to push or touch a woman and pretending that it was accidental; passing demeaning comments on women’s dressing; and at times also trying to follow her or forcing her to talk. Studies from Asian countries such as Bangladesh and India suggest that “eve teasing” is a menace as it involves similar aspects of street harassment which are passing derogatory remarks and trying to touch, etc. (Talboys et al., 2017)

Terms such has stranger harassment, street harassment, and public harassment all have their roots in sexual harassment, as they all branch from it (Fairchild & Rudman, 2008). The only difference between sexual harassment and the rest of the terms is that usually sexual harassment takes place by somebody who is known and primarily in workplace setting whereas in street harassment the perpetuator generally is unknown (Dhillion & Bakaya, 2014). Street harassment also has an underlying component of unwanted sexual attention, but in most cases its intensity is low and is limited to only catcalls or wolf whistles. Much of such street harassment incidents go unnoticed or unreported as generally it is believed that women are responsible and whatever that happens, it is their fault. Gender-based violence is very common in Pakistan. Patriarchal roots are embedded in the society, which result in honour killings and the woman is not even allowed to voice herself against any allegations (Hadi, 2017). Primarily street harassment is gender-based as it is targeted towards members of a specific gender to manipulate their vulnerabilities. Key aspects which act as a trigger for harassment include low levels of acquired education, no gender sensitization training, and sexual frustration (Social Policy & Development Centre, 2014).

Gender inequality has always been rampant within the subcontinent. Since long women are shown to be submissive and act as a puppet within the hands of the male chauvinist society. Culture has validated most of the stereotypes regarding women. Whether these are educational choices or occupational choices, women are restricted by social and cultural constraints and even given jobs of lesser value and pay. This creates a gap and women struggle hard to be equivalent with the opposite gender. With limited resources and lack of social and familial support, the struggle is real. In Pakistan, much of the criticism for women against their jobs, education or mobility comes from the fact that the men in the society are not ready to show acceptance for the opposite gender or provide them with public space (Ali & Kramar, 2015). Now that the women are being empowered through increasing globalization, there is an increase in women who are willing to participate equally with the opposite gender in education and at workplace (Yasmin & Jabeen, 2017). With increasing urbanization, women are opting for higher education, being more career-oriented, and hence, more independent. With more women stepping out of the four walls of the house, which were previously considered a sacred place by the patriarchal society, they undergo quite a lot of harassment by the male counterparts.

Empirical evidence is a farfetched area in terms of street harassment as most of the victims adopt a non reactive approach. It is not wrong to say that street harassment is part of gender-based violence, as it targets the women population by making them feel unsafe in public spaces. These harassing behaviours negatively impact women in psychological, emotional, and behavioural ways (Ahmad, Ahmad, & Masood, 2020). It is commonly seen that we tend to assume that since literature is not available on street harassment, thus, occurrence is also low which is not true (Ali & Naz, 2016).

Scanty research is available to depict prevalence of street harassment; since not knowing the perpetuator is one major obstacle in lodging a complaint. The fact that street harassment involves a stranger, it is difficult to both anticipate or ignore (Macmillan, Nierobsiz, & Welsh, 2000). Another reason for not much reported incidents could be that from a very tender age girls and later women in Pakistan are taught to be submissive towards such situations. It is not surprising that every teenage girl or woman is harassed in Pakistan at some point in time or under some circumstance (Muazzam, Qayyum, & Cheng, 2016). Street harassment is exhibited in various forms and varies from place to place. However, at times it is also difficult to judge whether it was an accidental or deliberate behaviour. Similarly, there is no time for harassment to take place. It can be during wide daylight and when the sun goes down, but the frequency is greater during rush hours (Dhillon & Bakaya, 2014).

It is shocking to see how much damage has been caused by street harassment. It has gradually seeped into the society like slow poison and affected both the society and the victim (woman). At societal level, women have become more fearful of men and have hard time trusting them. At the same time, to escape this situation, women develop avoidant behaviour; or a fear of going out alone (Gardner, 1995). Due to ongoing harassment, women may experience feelings of sadness and may even be ashamed of their sexuality. Resultantly, harassment leads to depression, low self-esteem, and self-objectification (Lord, 2009).

Use of valid and reliable scales to assess constructs or new scale development is very important as it helps in providing accurate results. Sexual harassment is an old phenomenon and has several assessment tools, especially, regarding measuring attitudes as compared to street harassment. There is tons of western literature and scales available to validate the presence and manifestation of sexual harassment. To quote a few, some of the scales are as follows. Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (Fitzgerald et al., 1988) is basically used at workplace and is a reliable scale as suggested by psychometric properties. Sexual Harassment Attitude Scale (Mazer & Percival, 1989), a 19-item inventory, is used to assess perception about sexual harassment at workplace. The Illinois Sexual Harassment Myth Acceptance (ISHMA) Scale is a 20-item scale developed by Lonsway, Cortina, and Magley (2008) focuses on victim shaming. Attitude towards Sexual Harassment Scale is a 16-item inventory to assess beliefs and tolerance about sexual harassment (McKinney, 1990). However, an imbalance of gender roles is assessed by Benovelent Sexism Scale (Glick & Fiske, 1997), 11-items primarily discuss stereotypical gender roles which result in giving men an upper hand over women. A 19-item Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995), which focuses on how common it is to put blame on victim and support perpetrator by suggesting their behaviour as normal.

Unfortunately, street harassment is not considered as a crime, as it does not fall under the category of sexual assault. A thorough research was done to look up work done on street harassment, but it was seen that scanty information is available in context of street harassment across the globe. With respect to Pakistan, scant literature is available in form of scholarly articles or academic papers. Past literature accounts for sexual harassment commonly experienced at workplaces, especially banks, hospitals, and educational institutes. Even in Pakistan there is sparse literature on sexual harassment primarily because it is considered as a taboo to talk about it. In context to Pakistan, Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire, a 35-item scale exists which measures a part of street harassment, but not as a whole as its focus is on sexual harassment primarily at workplace (Kamal & Tariq, 1998). It was then realized that street harassment is rampant and there is a dire need to assess its manifestations. This led to the development of a scale in indigenous context.

The present study focuses on scale development on street harassment with the aim to assess manifestations of street harassment. The prevailing and increasing levels of street harassment has aroused the need to have a standardized tool to assess manifestation of street harassment and its effect on the women population. Surprisingly, no standardized tool for street harassment exists both in the West and the East. Since no standardized tool exists to assess street harassment, studies basically are more qualitative in nature than quantitative (Dhillon & Bakaya, 2014).

The study is unique in a way that its first of its kind and most importantly it will assess manifestation of street harassment in the light of Pakistani culture. The purpose of this research is to assess the alarming rate of street harassment taking place with women by men and to disseminate knowledge to government officials to take notice and formulate anti-harassment laws. Objectives of the current study are to:

1. Develop the Street Harassment Scale (SHS) for women in universities in the context of Pakistani culture
2. Determine the psychometric properties of indigenously developed SHS for women in universities

METHOD

Current study consisted of two phases. In Phase I, SHS was developed. In Phase II, psychometric properties of the indigenously developed scale were determined.

Phase 1: Exploring Phenomenology
Generating item pool. To generate item pool for street harassment, questions for a semi-structured interview were developed through literature review. Previously available literature in the form of journal articles were thoroughly reviewed for this purpose. Both eastern and western studies were consulted for this purpose. The questions were such as ‘What do you know about street harassment?” “Do you think clothing and time are predictors of harassment?” “What are some of the commonly experienced street harassment behaviours?” After developing questions, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted by the researcher individually. Twenty women university students (10 from public university and 10 from private university) were conveniently selected from Lahore with age range of 18-25 years. After getting their consent, interview was conducted that on an average lasted from 15-20 minutes.

Empirical validation. To establish the content validity of the items generated through content analysis, the list of 19 items, which were in native Urdu language, were given to 3 experts including clinical psychologists each having a PhD in Psychology along with minimum of five years of experience. Some examples of items include taking picture without consent, asking for phone number, gesturing in a vulgar way, etc. They were requested to rate each item on a 5-point rating scale, indicating how relevant each item was to the construct of street harassment. After obtaining ratings from all the experts, a league table was developed and only those items were retained that had at least 60% agreement. Four items having similar content was removed to reduce redundancy. After a thorough review, a list of 15 items was finalized. The list of 15 items was then transformed into a scale with a 5-point rating scale; 0 (not at all), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3 (often), 4 (always); indicating the degree to which the participants had experienced street harassment. The maximum score on the scale was 60 and higher the score, greater was the frequency of street harassment experienced.

Try-out phase. To assess the suitability of language and whether the respondents encountered any difficulty, the try out was conducted on female university of Lahore. The sample included 15 female students. The students were selected through convenience sampling. Permission for administration of questionnaires was directly obtained from female students. Participants were given instructions on how to respond to the questions. Any queries from the participants were clarified by the researcher. It took them 15-20 minutes approximately to complete the protocol. The questionnaires were collected from the participants and it was ensured that no participant had missed out any item. Overall, the try out phase revealed the participants did not encounter any major problems regarding comprehension of the protocol. They were able to complete the research protocol in average 15 minutes.

Phase II: Establishing the Psychometric Properties of the Scale
In Phase II, SHS was administered to establish psychometric properties including, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), convergent validity, and item-to-total correlation in Stage 1 and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in Stage 2. Total 530 female respondents consented to participate in the study. EFA and CFA were run on different data sets of 150 and 380 respondents, respectively. In subsequent paragraphs, first EFA is reported along other psychometric evidences then CFA is reported.

Sample. SHS was administered on 150 female university students. The rationale behind choosing the target population of female university students was that due to their age they are more vulnerable and more frequent users of public transport making them seen more on streets. Another factor which made them more prone to harassment was that they lacked affordability to a private transport (Social Policy & Development Centre, 2014). Since female university students are a large population who need to commute daily to and from their educational institutes and at times also the major user of public transport, it makes them more prone to street harassment. The sample population was selected from public and private sector universities. A total of 10 universities were surveyed consisting of five public universities and five private sector universities. Quota sampling, a non probabilistic version of stratified sampling measure was used. Equal number of participants were conveniently selected from private and public sector universities. Participants were selected from all academic years such as Intermediate, Bachelors, and Masters. Female university students within the age bracket of 18-25 years (M = 20.25, SD = 2.64) were included in the sample. The students who participated in the initial interviews were excluded from the sample.

Table 1 indicates the demographic characteristics of female students. The participants who took part in the study are equally distributed in Intermediate, Bachelor, and Master education group. Most have family income less than 80,000/- PKR. High percentage of the sample indicates that street harassment occurs irrespective of time, place, and clothing.

Table 1:
Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Characteristics
of Sample (N=150)

Measures. Following measures were utilized in field administration.

Demographic questionnaire. The literature suggested that certain demographics were related to construct of street harassment. Demographic sheet consisted of variables that were most associated to the current study including level of education, institute (government/private), family income, circumstances in which harassment takes place, time of harassment, and relation of harassment to clothing.

SHS for Women in Universities. This scale was developed in the present study to assess manifestation of street harassment in female students. It consisted of 15 items. Items included behavioural (verbal and nonverbal) manifestations of street harassment. The Scale had a scoring on 5-point Likert scale 0 = never, 1= very less, 2 = sometimes, 3 = most of the time, 4 = always.

Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire. This scale was developed by Kamal and Tariq (1998) in Urdu and was currently used to establish convergent validity of the scale. The scale consisted of 35 items. It’s scoring is on a 4-point scoring where 1 (never), 2 (once), 3 (a few times), 4 (very frequent). Alpha value is .91 for complete scale and for subscales it ranged from .70 to .92 (Kamal & Tariq, 1998). After empirical judgement of experts, the scale suggests sufficient content validity. The scale has three subscales, namely Gender Harassment, Unwanted Sexual Attention, and Sexual Coercion.

Procedure. The administrative heads of the 10 universities were briefed about the purpose of the research and requested for permission for data collection from the students. After getting permission from the heads, the students were approached directly. Students were provided with questionnaires and demographic sheet in the classes as well as in cafeteria. The respondents were briefed about the topic of the research and given the right to refuse participation. The students who wished to participate were given the questionnaires. Written informed consent was obtained from the respondents and they were ensured of the confidentiality of the information provided. The students were given verbal instructions on how to respond to the questions. The students and teachers were thanked for their cooperation and were debriefed after the administration of tools.

Results
Exploratory factor analysis. It was run for SHS (n = 150), which revealed a three-factor solution. The value for Kaiser Myer Olkin test was found to be .785 and Bartlet test of Sphericity value was 590.71 which was significant at .001. There are several techniques that can be used to help in deciding the number of factors which will be retained which are 1) Kaiser’s criterion 2), scree test, and 3) parallel analysis. A scree plot is a plot of the Eigen values against the number of factors in order of extraction. To retain factors via scree plot, it is recommended to retain all factors above the elbow, or break in the plot, as these factors contribute the most to the explanation of the variance in the data set (Pallant, 2011, p.175). Only those factors were included that had the Eigen value greater than 1 and had the factor loadings >.30. Figure 1 shows a scree plot for the indigenously developed SHS.

Fig. 1: Scree plot for SHS

After analysing the scree plot, 2 and 3 factor solutions were done. Initially Varimax rotation was used, but the factors were closely related with each other and factor loadings were quite low, due to this Oblimin rotation was used. Three factor solutions was retained since it depicted a much clearer representation of factors and explained more appropriate distinction between number of items.

Table 2 shows a factor analysis of 15 items on three factors. EFA reflects that 15 items show high factor loading, that is above >.50 except for item 5 which is .34, but seems theoretically relevant to the Factor 1 it emerges on. Items in each factor are different in number as Factor 1 contains 7 items, Factor 2 and 3 both consist of 4 items each. The explained variance is relatively low though there is no fixed range for variable’s communality as it is based on the chosen analysis, however, generally 50% is accepted (Sarstedt & Mooi, 2014, p. 248). Selected items were discussed with the supervisor and other faculty members of psychology department. They suggested titles to factors in specific to content and literature available. The titles were named after their judgment. Further details about the nature of the items are reported.

Table 2:
EFA with Oblimin Rotation for Street Harassment Scale (N= 150)

Note. Boldface are the items having acceptable factor loadings on a respective factor as per
defined criteria. Factor I = Behavioural; Factor II = Verbal; Factor III = Eve Teasing

Factor I: Behavioural. This domain comprised of 7 items (4, 5, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15), which explained 29.1% of the variance with factor loadings from .34 to .77. Behavioural harassment was regarding performing certain behaviour such as asking for phone number, winking, etc.

Factor II: Verbal. It comprised of 4 items (2, 3, 7, 12), which explained 11.3% of the variance with factor loadings ranging from .54 to .77. Verbal harassment focuses on verbal cues which are part of street harassment such as whistling and singing songs to gain attention.

Factor III: Eve Teasing. It comprised of 4 items (1, 8, 9, 11) with 9.06 of the variance having factor loadings ranging from .56 to .72. Eve Teasing consists of manifestations belonging to both behavioural and verbal forms of harassment. Items such as taking picture without consent or passing derogatory remarks on clothing or physical appearance are part of this factor.

Reliability and construct validity. Test-retest reliability of SHS was conducted on 10% of the sample which is 15 participants, with a gap of three weeks. It suggested that SHS is highly reliable to study manifestations of street harassment. The test-retest reliability is .87**.

Table 3 shows alpha reliability, descriptives, and inter-subscale correlation coefficients of three subscales of SHS and its total and with Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire as an indicator of convergent validity. To measure the internal consistency of the 15 items of SHS for women in universities, Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was used. Correlation among the scale and its subscales were obtained using Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

Table 3:
Alpha Reliability, Descriptive, and Inter-Subscale Correlation
Coefficients of Street Harassment Scale and Its Subscale
and Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (N=150)

Note. SHS = Sexual Harassment Questionnaire; SHEQ= Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire
K = no. of items. **p < .01

It is evident from the analysis in Table 3 that SHS scale has a satisfactory value of Cronbach’s alpha and the subscales also have acceptable values. The results suggest significant strong correlation between the SHS and its subscales, which means subscales are measuring similar construct and are interlinked well with each other. It is found that SHS is correlated significantly positively with Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire which shows convergent validity of SHS and that it is a valid construct to measure street harassment.

Table 4 shows correlation between total score of SHS and its 15 items, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

Table 4:
Item-Total Score Correlations for 15-items of SHS (N=150)

**p < .01

Table 4 shows items 12 and 13 having weak nonsignificant correlation coefficients. To further justify retaining these items, it is decided to see response pattern on larger data set and validate through CFA. Results show that rest of the items correlate significantly with total score on SHS ranging from .197 to .545.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis. It was run on a data set of 380 participants which was collected separately. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for sample selection was same as used for EFA (Stage 1) of the study. Process followed for the data collection is same as reported in the Procedure of Stage 1 of Phase 2. For CFA, the participants only filled newly developed SHS for women in universities which took ten minutes to complete. The respondents were selected from both public and private sector universities within the age range of 18-25 years (M = 21.36, SD = 1.77).

Table 5 shows demographic characteristics of 380 female participants. The results are similar to Table 2 depicting a high rise in family income and suggesting that street harassment covers all the domains mentioned along with a unanimous response in both sets suggesting that street harassment occurs irrespective of time and clothing.

Table 5:
Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Characteristics
of Sample (N = 380)

Results. CFA was conducted on a data set of 380 participants. It was done on the 15 items to validate the factors obtained from EFA analysis. After analysis it was seen that item 12, 13 and 14 again received weak loadings making the model a poor fit. For this purpose, item 12 and 13 were removed from data set of 380 participants and CFA was rerun on 13 items. AMOS 21was used to run the analysis. It was performed on the 13 items SHS to validate the factors obtained from EFA analysis. For this purpose, AMOS 21 was used.

Table 6:
Fit indices of three factor solution of SHS model

Note. M1 = Before deleting items; M 2 = After deleting items and adding error co-variances

The results of the CFA in Table 6 denoted a model fit after deleting item 12 and 13 and adding few error covariances e3 e5, e6 e8, e9 e11 Generally, a model is considered fit if it has the following values RMSEA is less than 0.08, CFI more than or equal to .90 (Ugulu, 2013). The results indicate a model fit since all the values are in acceptable range. Overall, the results showed the association of the three-factor solution of EFA. The value of chi-square is significant because of greater degree of freedom; therefore, by dividing degree of freedom by chi-square (χ2 /df) the value is 2.38 which is acceptable for model fit after adding error co-variances. Hence three factor model was retained.

Table 7 shows the standardized factor loadings on CFA of 3 factor solution of SHS. The final scale retained 12 items. However, for CFA analysis weak loadings are discarded and final factor Behavioural now consists of 5 items which were 4, 5, 6, 10, and 15. The factor loadings are within the range of .23 to .71.

Table 7:
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with Items Loadings for
Street Harassment Scale (N= 380)

DISCUSSION

The present study was done to develop a tool for assessing manifestation of street harassment among 18 to 25 years old female students enrolled in public and private institutes. The aim of the study was to develop an indigenous tool that may help to identify street harassment manifestations. Much of the previous literature and scales development focus majorly on sexual harassment than street harassment. Previously developed scales focused on myths reporting and work place related sexual harassment behaviours. Increase in street harassment is observed as it hardly is reported. Most of the women dread reporting it, as the perpetrator might persist doing it. Similarly, women at workplace settings dread to report sexual harassment, as it might cause them more harm than good.

None of the previously developed scales assessed manifestations of street harassment and so the indigenously developed scale covers all domains of street harassment, which are commonly experienced by women in Pakistan. The scale’s items are precise, clear, and apt in setting of Pakistan.

Indigenously developed scale was divided into three subscales in context to the factors which emerged during EFA that is Behavioural, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. Behavioural forms accounted for asking for phone number, winking, trying to block passage, etc. Whereas Verbal forms of harassment included singing, hooting, laughing, etc. Eve Teasing included both forms of harassment such as abusing, taking picture without consent, passing derogatory remarks on physical appearance, etc. Behavioural forms of harassment showed a higher percentage variance followed by Verbal and Eve Teasing, which shared an almost equal percentage. The three-factor model was confirmed by EFA. The three developed factors of SHS exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties and internal consistency. Moreover, the test-retest reliability after a period of 3 weeks suggested a good reliability by yielding similar results. CFA was done using Amos 21 on 12 items as three items (item 12,13, and 14) were discarded for weak loadings for resulting in a poor model fit. After deleting, the values of model fit fell in acceptable ranges.

Psychometric properties were developed by establishing convergent validity. Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (Kamal & Tariq, 1998) was used for this purpose which consisted of 35 items. Convergent validity for street harassment manifestations scale was found to be sufficiently acceptable. Good convergent validity with another almost similar scale showed that indigenously developed SHS is a valid scale that appropriately covers and assesses street harassment phenomenon.

First subscale was named as Behavioural, which includes blocking someone’s way, asking for something private such as a phone number, winking for no reason, making inappropriate gestures such as fly kiss or wave, deliberately trying to touch, and calling out names or praises just to gain attention. Research suggests nonverbal harassment accounts for gestures and cues which are unwelcoming and unpleasant (Bowman, 1993; Gardner, 1995). Factor 1 had the strongest variance as most of the participants could relate to this.

Second subscale was labelled as verbal forms of harassment and included items such as whistling, hooting, deliberately singing songs and laughing while looking at you. Several researches suggest verbal forms of harassment include passing demeaning remarks or insisting for sexual favours (Bowman, 1993; Gardner, 1995), commonly experienced by women during their commute to and from university where men use these ways to harass them.

Third subscale was referred to as Eve Teasing as it accounted for both behavioural and verbal domains. Items in this factor correspond to clicking picture without consent; passing derogatory remarks on physical appearance and clothes; and abusing if ignored. Street harassment is manifested in various forms and it is not only limited to public spaces at times women experience some of its manifestations at even workplace. Since it covers items from both verbal and behaviour domains it is termed as Eve Teasing in countries like India and Bangladesh which share similar values and culture in context of Pakistan (Social Policy & Development Centre, 2014).

Over the past years several studies have been conducted on effects of harassment, its types, causes, and manifestation. The results of the research depict a toll on scores of harassment against women. There is scanty literature available in context to street harassment and to this date there was no scale available both in Eastern and Western literature to assess the manifestation and frequency of street harassment. Furthermore, this scale was developed indigenously and three subscales are the manifestations of harassment faced by Pakistani female population. Items included in the indigenously developed scale are according to themes on street harassment found in literature and assessed through interviews.

Overall, the results indicated that SHS is a valid and reliable scale to assess the frequency and manifestation of street harassment. Much of the manifestations were in line with previous researches, but the manifestations were more accurately analysed in context to Pakistani culture resulted in a scale of 12 items.

LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The current research had certain limitations. Sample was entirely collected from the student body which represented women of certain age (18-25 years). Employed women or those who were out of this age bracket were under-represented. The data were only collected from public and private sector universities of Lahore, hence, the results cannot be generalized across other cities of Pakistan. Discriminant validity for SHS could not be established, in upcoming research it can be taken up. Cross-cultural research can be done in future, to compare similarities and differences on manifestation of street harassment. Further research in this area can help in assessing mindsets of men and what leads them to harass and women and simultaneously provide psychological support to those who have been a victim of this menace.

IMPLICATIONS

The data collected during this research can be used by NGO’s working for women empowerment and by shelter homes for women to help them realize that their safety comes first. Workshops regarding street harassment can be conducted in educational institutes to help better address the current situation and this can be an effective method to create awareness. For well-being of female citizens, friendly transport services can be provided. Gender sensitization trainings can be imparted in law enforcement agencies to encourage one window reporting system and making it accessible and easy to file a harassment complaint.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately, women are more prone to harassment. There has been a tremendous rise in gender-based violence and harassment as women are claiming equal power and rights in public spaces as of men. The present study assessed the manifestation of street harassment in Pakistan in the form of Behavioural, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. The SHS is valid and reliable measure to study street harassment manifestations experienced by women.

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How to Cite this paper?


APA-7 Style
Israa, S., Ijaz, T. (2021). Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities. Pak. J. Psychol. Res, 36(2), 177-197. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2021.36.2.11

ACS Style
Israa, S.; Ijaz, T. Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities. Pak. J. Psychol. Res 2021, 36, 177-197. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2021.36.2.11

AMA Style
Israa S, Ijaz T. Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research. 2021; 36(2): 177-197. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2021.36.2.11

Chicago/Turabian Style
Israa, Sara, and Tazvin Ijaz. 2021. "Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities" Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research 36, no. 2: 177-197. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2021.36.2.11