The relationship between different types of objectification, sexual pressure, and relationship satisfaction in Chinese heterosexual dating relationships

Although an increasing number of studies are focusing on the relationship between different kinds of objectification and relationship satisfaction, studies have rarely examined these relationships within non-Western samples. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between men’s partner objectification (PO), women’s perceived partner-objectification (PPO), and women’s self-objectification, as well as their link to women’s romantic relationship satisfaction through women’s sexual pressure among Chinese heterosexual college couples ( n = 201 pairs). This study found that women’s PPO mediated the relationship between men’s PO and women’s self-objectification, and there were two paths from men’s PO to women’s relationship satisfaction. First, men’s PO was related to lower women’s relationship satisfaction through increased women’s PPO. Second, men’s PO was associated with greater women’s PPO, which was associated with greater sexual pressure on women and subsequently correlated with women’s lower relationship satisfaction. However, self-objectification was neither significantly directly related to sexual pressure nor relationship satisfaction. These findings indicated that the relationships between the three types of objectification (men’s PO, women’s PPO, and women’s self-objectification) and sexual pressure and relationship satisfaction are different, which contributes to the understanding of the destructive effect of different objectification on relationship satisfaction in Chinese samples.

Perception of students regarding sexual harassment

Background: Sexual harassment means unwanted sexually determined behavior such as physical contacts and advances, making sexual derogative comments, and sexual pressure whether by verbal or -nonverbal actions. Young female adults are most vulnerable to harassment and violence towards them. Despite of high literacy levels young female adults show tendency to tolerate harassment and delay in early identification of warning signs, leading to sexual harassment. Therefore, it becomes very important to understand how the students perceive different types of sexual harassment. Objective of the study was to assess the perception of undergraduate girl students regarding Sexual Harassment.Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional survey design on 100 female undergraduate students from the King George’s Medical University of Lucknow, India was undertaken using convenient sampling technique. The data were collected from 15th May to 15th June 2018. A self structured perception questionnaire developed by researchers was used.Results: The data gathered from the study suggests that majority (81%) of the participants responded that sexual harassment is related to all unwelcome sexual behaviour, 72% of the participants feel most afraid of sexual harassment during night, and 83% of the participants responded that the most probable place for sexual harassment is public transport. 91% of the participants believed that the incidences of the sexual harassment has increased in the last 10 years and majority (81%) of the participants didn’t had knowledge of any legal provisions regarding sexual harassment.Conclusions: The data shows that the definition of sexual harassment can differ according to individual’s perception. To understand how people perceive and define sexual harassment is crucial for explaining and understanding how they react to sexual harassment and why they often do not stand up against sexual harassment.

How Mighty Girls Became the Mighty Teens: Using Multi-Cultural Adaptation and App Development to Take an Evidenced-Based Intervention to Scale (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Taking evidence-based interventions to scale is a primary challenge for prevention science. Adapting an intervention to be multi-cultural is a useful pathway for scaling up interventions, particularly those that are school based. So too is finding simpler but powerful technological components to reduce overall cost without jeopardizing effectiveness. Mighty Girls is a sexual pressure resistance program developmentally and culturally tailored for 7th grade Latinas. The program combines classroom sessions with an interactive videogame that reinforces program concepts. However, both the exclusive focus on Latinas and game cost (currently relies on digital puppetry by trained inter-actors) limit dissemination. OBJECTIVE Create a multi-cultural program that uses a narrative phone app to reinforce program concepts and build resistance skills. Specific, adaptation goals included: (1) modify classroom lessons; (2) conduct a pilot study to evaluate feasibility and preliminary efficacy of classroom lessons; (3) develop a narrative app to reinforce curriculum content and build resistance skills; (4) conduct usability test of the app; and (5) assess parents’ views of lesson content and activities, and the app as well as their supervision of child's cell phone use. METHODS Consultation with 4 adult key informants, and a series of research activities involving 7th grade girls attending either a “development school” (n=14) or “pilot study school” (n=23), and parents (n=6) addressed adaptation goals. Activities included: focus groups, pilot study (one group pre-test post-test design), and usability testing. Pilot study self-report measures assessed resistance self-efficacy and intentions, and sexual intentions (including intention to delay intercourse). Usability testing self-report measures included the System Usability Scale (SUS), adapted for use with an app and for teens, an open-ended question soliciting suggestions for improving usability, and a 5-item Like scale for assessing engagement. RESULTS Qualitative analyses of interviews, focus groups, and responses to open-ended questions supported multicultural content, and identified simple changes to improve engagement and learning. These changes were supported by quantitative findings from the pilot study school. Preliminary program effectiveness was supported by a significant pre-post difference in intention to delay sexual intercourse (P=.04). A SUS score of 76 (exceeding 68, industry standard) and a “liking” score of 3.2 on a 4-point scale (SD=.60) supported usability and appeal. CONCLUSIONS Our multi-step adaptation process resulted in a multicultural program that is now paired with an app with good usability and engagement properties. Pilot study findings provided preliminary support for program effectiveness. Modifications identified for the app will be addressed in building out of the app as we move toward commercialization and are expected to increase intervention potency. The resulting program is suitable for universal uptake due to its focus on sexual pressure resistance rather than abstinence or comprehensive sex education.