Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

However, KULeuven students’ perception scores differed significantly from
those of VUBrussels students on all but four items. VUBrussels students
systematically perceived the same coach behaviours as less unacceptable when
compared with KULeuven students.
Because we wanted to go beyond item level and get a more comprehensive
view on the reported prevalence of unwanted sexual behaviour we took into account
the grouping of the items according to the differences in perceptions between both
universities.
Table 3.4 reveals that KULeuven students perceived more behaviours as
serious and unacceptable than did VUBrussels students. The latter perceived more
coach behaviours to be in the unacceptable but not serious zone.
We then assessed whether the grouping of the items according to the same
cut-off scores in both universities revealed other frequencies of experiences. It was
found that the more stringent perceptions of KULeuven students on the
unacceptability of coach behaviour as the norm resulted in a higher reported
prevalence of very serious and unacceptable behaviour (7.9% in KULeuven and
13.7% in VUBrussels) and of unacceptable but less serious behaviour (44.2% in
KULeuven and 50.4% in VUBrussels) than when the more liberal perceptions of
VUBrussels students was the norm. Using more tolerant VUBrussels norms, very
serious and unacceptable behaviour was reported only by 2.1% of the KULeuven
students and 4.9% of the VUBrussels students. Serious and unacceptable
behaviour was reported by 17.2% of the KULeuven students and 19.6% of the
VUBrussels students (Table 3.4).
Reflections
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