Sexual harassment in secondary school: prevalence and ambiguities. A mixed methods study in Scottish schools

PONE-D-21-21275

Dear Dr. Helen Sweeting,

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PLOS ONE

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Dear authors,

Your article is now accepted.

Reviewers' comments:

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: This study explored prevalence and perceptions of sexual harassment in a school context. It utilised a mixed-methods approach study with 13-17 year-old adolescents which is highly commendable. The authors ensured diversity of their convenience sample by including schools of size, level of urbanisation, student socio-economic status and academic achievement. The findings are consistent with previous studies so that a large majority of adolescents are exposed to different forms of sexual harassment, but these are of lower intensity. The unwanted consequence is that they are normalized and often nor reported / reacted to. The more serious perpetrations, mainly physical, were found to be much less present. The fact that perpetrator are in many cases also victims, warrants further investigation.

This is a well designed, implemented and analyses study, and the manuscript is easy to read and follow.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dean Ajdukovic