Sexual School Climate and Sexual Coercion in Cape Town's Secondary Schools

The school environment is important for adolescents’ sexual health as it influences the opportunities and resources available to youth and acts as a socializing agent that influences youth’s perceptions of norms, beliefs, and attitudes. Creating a safe environment in which youth can learn about and discuss sexuality is important for effective interventions. Although research is limited on interventions directly targeting the school climate, there is support that school-level interventions reduce sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, effects that may be explained by possible changes to school climate. In this study we examine whether a school’s “sexual climate” is related to sexual coercion.

Data from approximately 10,103 8^th and 9^th grade students from 56 schools participating in a translational research study in Cape Town, South Africa are used to examine the association between sexual climate in grade 8 and the prevalence of having been sexually coerced in grade 9. Two waves of self-report data from students are aggregated at the school-level to measure school’s sexual climate and sexual coercion.

School sexual climate is a multi-dimensional construct that includes sexual aggression (e.g., having forced someone to do something sexually), accepting attitudes toward sexually coercive behaviors (e.g., I believe it is okay for people my age to get a person drunk or high in order to have sex with them), sexual norms (e.g., perception of how many peers are sexually active), and sexual beliefs (e.g., It is okay for a girl to carry a condom). Sexual coercion was measured by three items that identified those students who reported a sexual encounter over the past 6 months was forced sex against their will.

The relationship between the grade 8 school sexual climate variables and having experienced sexual coercion in grade 9 was assessed using linear regression, controlling for the prevalence of sexual coercion in grade 8. The prevalence of sexual coercion within schools varied from 5.6% to 17.0%. Results suggest that schools with more sexual aggression in grade 8 (B = 0.13, p < .001) and higher levels of acceptance of coercive behaviors (B = 0.13, p < .0001) have higher prevalence of sexual coercion in grade 9. Positive sexual beliefs and perceptions of peer norms were not associated with the prevalence of sexual coercion.

These findings suggest that schools that have a high prevalence of students reporting sexually aggressive behavior and intentions and acceptance of sexual coercive behaviors may need to take extra measures to curb sexual coercion amongst their students. Programs aimed at changing the sexual climate within schools may help in efforts to prevent sexual coercion.