Sexual Harassment in Kosovo

interview, which is to be expected with interviews including such sensitive and private information.
Overall, 98.4% of participants completed the entire interview and survey.
As researchers were trained in modern psychological practices, they were asked to observe
respondents across several measures, including honesty, comprehension, and comfort. These are
important in estimating error and understanding the degree to which respondents answered honestly
to such sensitive topics. Researchers evaluated how interviews went. In approximately 50% of the
interviews, interviewers did not write comments as the interview went well and they had no
impressions to report. Only 1.6% (21 interviews) went very poorly and 5% (70) went relatively poorly,
according to interviewers. Approximately 30% of interviews went “well” and another 13.4% went
“very well”.
Studying sensitive topics such as sexual harassment creates both methodological and technical
issues for the researcher. Due to the perceived social undesirability of sexual harassment and domestic
violence, and the prospect of future implications, the likelihood of inaccurate responses can be high.
Researchers believed that 30% of respondents may have been dishonest in one or more of their
responses on the entire survey instrument, which included questions pertaining to domestic violence as
well.
Researchers also were requested to measure the comprehension level of the respondent. Due
to various education levels and potential language barriers, it is important to identify responses
confounded by comprehension issues. In 94.6% of the interviews, the researcher believed the
respondent fully understood the questions. In only 23 cases, did the researcher believe the respondent
failed to comprehend the questions asked. In an additional 47 cases respondents seemed to partially
understand questions.
In some situations, the presence of others in the interview may have impacted respondents’
answers. Although interviewers were instructed to go to all measures possible to ensure a private
space for the interview, in Kosovo this can be quite difficult given living conditions. Further, in families
where violence may be present, controlling the actions of family members by definition means that a
respondent may not have been able to speak freely with other family members around. In 93.9% of the
interviews, the respondent was alone. In 45 cases (3.4%), another member of the household was
present throughout the entire interview, and in 35 cases (2.6%) other members of the household were
present some of the time. The presence of others is important to note because the respondent may
have in some cases altered answers in the presence of others for reasons of social desirability or fear.
For example, in one extreme case, when asked if she had any further comments, the respondent’s
mother-in-law told her, “Do not say anything more because you might do a mistake and you will be
over.” Even so, given the small percentage of cases the presence of others probably had little influence
on the findings.
Control: Two persons not involved in the surveying carried out controls of surveyors. This
included random field visits to ensure they were following the sampling methodology and checking the
quality of surveyors’ work. They also carried out check-backs on a randomly selected sample of 10% of
completed surveys to ensure accuracy.
Data entry: Data was entered by persons not involved in surveying into SPSS 22.0 for data
analysis. They entered qualitative information such as anecdotes, quotations, and recommendations
into a Microsoft Word database where it was coded independently by multiple members of the
research team.
Data analysis: The KWN Lead Researcher, a statistician, and an intern analysed the SPSS data.
The data was weighted to account for the oversampling of minority ethnic groups, as relevant. Several
statistical tests were run. The data has been weighted based on Census data, adding an additional
40,000 Serbs believed to be living in northern Kosovo, resulting in the following percentages: Albanians
92%, Serbs 4%, and other ethnic groups 4%.
Demographics of the Sample: The following graphs illustrate the demographic composition of
the actual sample. Persons interviewed ranged in age from 18 to 88.
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