The biopsychosocial experience of sexual harassment: the concomitant effects of being harassed and response choice

ABSTRACT While copious research considers the health outcomes of sexual harassment experiences and investigates how individuals respond to sexual harassment, it has not investigated the concomitant effects of sexual harassment experiences and responses on their wellbeing. Further, no research has applied the biopsychosocial (BPS) framework to consider how sexual harassment impacts wellbeing. Hence, we present a framework to guide research examining the concomitant effects of experiences with and responses to sexual harassment on wellbeing. By viewing sexual harassment as a stressor, we integrate literature related to sexual harassment appraisals and responses, and expand existing sexual harassment literature to include the BPS framework, thereby advancing the theoretical foundation of the wellbeing effects of sexual harassment. The resulting theoretically integrative model provides a means of categorising individuals’ experiences with sexual harassment by considering the concomitant effects of the individual’s appraisal and response choice on wellbeing as well as the recursive effects that response choice and wellbeing have on one another.