SEXUAL HARASSMENT AMONG TURKISH FEMALE ATHLETES: THE ROLE OF AMBIVALENT SEXISM

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was to focus on sexual harassment in sport in Turkey and the role of ambivalent sexism on attitudes toward sexual harassment. 170 female university students, playing in team sports participated to the study. Demographic Information Form, Coach Behaviors List (CBL), Responses to Sexual Harassment in Sport (RSHS) Scale, Attitudes toward Sexual Harassment (ASH) Scale, and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) were used in the study. Mean and standard deviations of coach behaviors and responses to sexual harassment were calculated in order to have descriptive information about the acceptance levels and frequency levels of them. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed unique predictions of age, political view, hostile sexism (HS), and benevolent sexism (BS) in female athletes’ attitudes toward viewing sexual harassment as the result of provocative behaviors of women (ASHPBW), but not in attitudes toward accepting sexual harassment as a trivial matter (ASHTM). ASHPBW, ASHTM, and HS were found as predictors of ASBC, but not for ANPTBC. In predicting the three dimensions of RSHS, years of sport experience, ASHPBW, ASHTM, and BS were found to be significant. This thesis mainly contributed to the literature by (1) development of RSHS scale, and adaptation of CBL for Turkey, (2) supporting the relationship between ASH and ambivalent sexist attitudes in sport environment (3) investigating the predicting powers of ASHPBW, ASHTM, HS, and BS on acceptability of coach’s negative behaviors, and (4) investigating the predictive powers of HS and BS on RSHS.

Key words: sexual harassment in sport, ambivalent sexism, attitudes toward sexual harassment, responses to sexual harassment, sexual coach behaviors