Teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment and student performance: roles of emotional exhaustion and neuroticism

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-06-2021-0155
• Published date: 28 February 2022
• Date: 28 February 2022
• Pages: 793-812
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Atif Bilal,Syed Harris Laeeque,Muhammad Ali Saeed,Mohsin Mumtaz

Teacher-perpetrated sexual

harassment and student

performance: roles of emotional

exhaustion and neuroticism

Atif Bilal

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology–Islamabad Campus,

Islamabad, Pakistan

Syed Harris Laeeque and Muhammad Ali Saeed

Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan, and

Mohsin Mumtaz

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology–Islamabad Campus,

Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose –This study examines the effects of teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment on graduate students’

academic and extracurricular performance using conservation of resources theory as a framework. Further, it

looks into the moderating role of trait neuroticism on the indirect relationship between sexual harassment and

student performance via emotional exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach –Longitudinal data were collected in three waves from 218 Pakistani

students over a period of three months during the fall 2019 semester. PROCESS Macro (v. 4) model 7 was used

on SPSS (v. 21) to analyze the data for testing the moderated-mediation hypotheses.

Findings –The results show that as a source of toxic stress, teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment is

negatively related to both academic performance and extracurricular performance, and that emotional

exhaustion is a mediator in this inverse relationship. In addition, trait neuroticism strengthens the negative

effect of teacher-to-student sexual harassment on student performance through emotional exhaustion.

Originality/value –This study addresses an unexplored moderated-mediation mechanism, and thus makes

valuable contributions to education management research and practice. More specifically, it contributes by

examining emotional exhaustion as a mediating variable in the relationship of teacher-perpetrated sexual

harassment and student performance and, perhaps for the first time, establishes the moderating role of

neuroticism in increasing the strength of the aforementioned relationship.

Keywords Sexual harassment, Academic performance, Extracurricular performance, Emotional exhaustion,

Neuroticism

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2019), the country has a female literacy rate of

47% and only 5.07% of its roughly 102 million women ever complete university education.

One of the major reasons why parents do not send their daughters to school and women drop

out of universities is sexual harassment –a highly prevalent malady in the education sector of

Pakistan (Sultan, 2020). As reported by Dukhtar Foundation, out of the 20,718 telephonic

complaints it has received since April 2018 regarding women workplace harassment, 82%

were filed by female students of different universities, and that too against teachers (Zahra,

2020). Hence, female students in Pakistan are being sexually exploited and assaulted by

teachers under the guise of mentorship (Feroz, 2020). Due to their considerable dependence on

teachers for various outcomes, the conservative nature of Pakistani society, and familial and

religious pressures, women find it difficult to even speak about it. Those who are courageous

Sexual

harassment

and student

performance

793

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 16 June 2021

Revised 9 October 2021

15 December 2021

8 January 2022

1 February 2022

Accepted 10 February 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 5, 2022

pp. 793-812

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-06-2021-0155

enough to take action are made to sit silent because either the university anti-harassment

committee does not exist, or if it does, the committee members are usually protective of

teachers (Haq, 2020). Thus, the subject of teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment and its

implications for female students are worthy of scholarly and managerial attention in

Pakistan.

Though the role of teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment as a stress factor in influencing

students’psychological, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes is well-documented in the literature

(e.g. Fairchild et al., 2018), existing scholarship on this issue has two limitations. Firstly, findings

for the impact of teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment on academic performance are

inconsistent, and its effect on extracurricular performance has not been adequately studied.

Extracurricular performance refers to students’performance in voluntary activities that go

beyond the standard curriculum and requirements of educational institutes (Jelani et al.,2015).

To the authors’understanding, no study has examin ed how teacher-perpetrated sexual

harassment decreases students’performancein extracurricularactivities. Instead,studies have

mostly emphasized the benefits of extracurricular involvement, like emotional wellbeing

(Guilmette et al., 2019), school achievement (Coulangeon, 2018) and better employability skills

(Tran, 2017); leaving interpersonal factors that impede extracurricular performance (e.g. power

abuse or sexual misconduct) unexplored.

Secondly, the possible mediators of the relationship between teacher-perpetrated sexual

harassment and student performance remain unclear. Sexual harassment occurs

unpredictably and abruptly in learning interactions (Jones, 1996;Shumba and Matina,

2002), and its effects on students’performance may not be direct (Shoop, 2004); certain factors

can mediate them. Although empirical evidence to substantiate this assumption is scant as

the issue of teacher-to-student victimization is under-researched (Benbenishty et al., 2019), the

literature does demonstrate that the experience of sexual harassment –regardless of the

perpetrator’s relation with the victimized student –is associated with several negative

outcomes which gradually lead to reduced academic performance. For instance, recent

studies have found sexual harassment to induce psychological distress and trauma

symptoms, and cause depression, adjustment difficulties and burnout (Bastiani et al., 2019;

Lei et al., 2020;McDermut et al., 2000); all of which diminish the victim’s academic

performance over time (Huerta et al., 2006;Johnson et al., 2018). However, emotional

exhaustion, which is a relatively immediate and direct psychological response to stress and

trauma (Maslach et al., 2001), has not received the attention it warrants. On top of that, the

extant research does not provide any insight into the factors or situations which exacerbate

or buffer the negative aftereffects of teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment.

In response to the above-discussed research gaps and the current scenario of Pakistan’higher

education sector, this study examines the impact of sexual harassment on the academic and

extracurricular performance of Pakistani graduate students. Guided by Hobfoll’s (1989)

conservation of resources (COR) theory, it investigates the process of student performance by

proposingemotionalexhaustionas a mediator, whichprovides an in-depthunderstandingof the

underlying mechanism through which teacher-perpetrated sexual harassment affects student

performance. The COR theory has been widely used to explain interpersonal misconduct in

student–teacher interactions (e.g. Lasiter et al., 2012;Michalec et al., 2013;Rella et al.,2009).

In accordance with the basic principles of this theory, theauthors believe that when students

experience sexual harassment from teachers, they are likely to suffer in their perceived loss of

valuable resources and their psychological states. This will not only cause psychic distress and

emotional upheaval but also activate students’psychological defense system to conserve

resources, which may have inimical effects on their academic and extracurricular performance.

Hence, this study predicts that emotional exhaustion will mediate the link between teacher-

perpetrated sexual harassment and students’performance in university.

EDI

41,5

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