Toward Standardized Measurement of Sexual Harassment: Shortening the SEQ-DoD Using Item Response Theory

Historically, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been one of the leaders in researching sexual harassment. Documentation and results of these studies are routinely available through DoD technical reports and publications and through public use data sets to the nonmilitary research community. However, a major shortcoming of both DoD's research and that of the civilian sector is the absence of a standard method of assessing sexual harassment. This article describes how item response theory procedures were applied to shorten one of the most frequently used measures of sexual harassment—the 23-item Sexual Experiences Questionnaire-Department of Defense (SEQ-DoD; Bastian, Lancaster, & Reyst, 1996 Bastian, L. D., Lancaster, A. R., & Reyst, H. E. (1996). Department of Defense 1995 sexual harassment survey (Rep. No. DMDC-96-014). Washington, DC: Defense Manpower Data Center. Google Scholar), which was included in the Status of the Armed Forces Survey: 1995 Form B-Gender Issues (U.S. Department of Defense, 1995 U.S. Department of Defense. (1995). Status of the Armed Forces Survey: 1995 Form B-Gender Issues (Survey No. 95–001b). Arlington, VA: Defense Manpower Data Center. Google Scholar). The resulting 16-item measure, titled the SEQ-DoD-s, provides a shortened, standardized measure of sexual harassment for use by military and civilian researchers.