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

Bilal, Atif; Laeeque, Syed Harris; Saeed, Muhammad Ali; Mumtaz, Mohsin

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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 10, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 28, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 13, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 17, 2023
• Journal: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Print ISSN: 2040-7149
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 793-812
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-06-2021-0155
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11390711