Prevalence of sexual harassment among rural community care workers

This study identified the prevalence of sexual harassment and the demographic characteristics of rural, midwestern community care workers (CCWs). To prevent premature institutionalization, community care workers provide home-based assistance that enables elderly persons to remain in their homes. Data were collected from 735 CCWs to determine their demographic characteristics and the prevalence of sexual harassment at the work site. The prevalence portion of the instrument provided data which indicated that 27.8% of the CCWs were harassed on the job and that 15% of the workers were harassed by their elderly client. Demographic characteristics were collected which showed that 94.8% of the CCWs were women, 60.4% were married, and 89.8% were white. Discussion and recommendations drawn from the results of the collected data are included in this article.