The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmières
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Despite increasing societal concern about sexual harassment in the workplace and in academia, to date sexual harassment has been neglected by nurses as a health issue among adolescents. Sexual harassment includes a wide range of unwelcome sexually oriented and gender-offensive behaviours that contribute to a hostile environment. Although the research is limited and lacking in rigour, early findings, along with evidence abstracted from the workplace-harassment and stress and coping literature, suggest that peer sexual harassment may adversely affect young women's mental and physical health, health-related behaviours, and future relationships. The author makes recommendations for further sexual-harassment research, specific to the adolescent population, based on a conceptual framework derived from the transactional stress and coping literature.