Table 3
Students at Canadian postsecondary schools who witnessed unwanted sexualized behaviours in a postsecondary setting in the past 12 months, by actions taken and reasons for not taking action, and gender, 2019


Table 3
Students at Canadian postsecondary schools who witnessed unwanted sexualized behaviours in a postsecondary setting in the past 12 months, by actions taken and reasons for not taking action, and gender, 2019
Table summary
This table displays the results of Students at Canadian postsecondary schools who witnessed unwanted sexualized behaviours in a postsecondary setting in the past 12 months. The information is grouped by Actions taken and reasons for not taking action (appearing as row headers), Unwanted sexualized behaviours, Men, Women, percent and 95% confidence interval, calculated using from and to units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Actions taken and reasons for not taking action Unwanted sexualized behavioursTable 3 Note 1
MenTable 3 Note † Women
percent 95% confidence interval percent 95% confidence interval
from to from to
Actions taken
Took action in at least one instance 40.9 39.2 42.6 55.2Note * 53.6 56.7
Spoke to the person(s) targeted by the behaviour 59.6 56.9 62.2 68.5Note * 66.4 70.4
Spoke to the person(s) responsible for the behaviour 79.7 77.3 81.8 67.4Note * 65.3 69.4
Created a distraction to stop the situation 36.1 33.5 38.9 38.6 36.6 40.7
Intervene and separate those involved 37.6 34.9 40.3 29.8Note * 27.9 31.9
Asked others to step in as a group 22.0 19.8 24.3 24.7 22.9 26.6
Spoke to someone outside school 14.0 12.2 16.0 21.9Note * 20.3 23.6
Reported the behaviour to the school 8.5 7.1 10.2 11.7Note * 10.4 13.1
Spoke to someone at a service run by the school 7.0 5.7 8.5 10.2Note * 9.0 11.6
Spoke to someone at a service run by students 5.6 4.5 7.0 6.0 5.1 7.2
Shared on social media 2.3 1.6 3.3 5.4Note * 4.5 6.5
Called school security 3.2 2.3 4.3 5.0Note * 4.1 6.0
Called the police 0.8 0.4 1.5 1.7Note * 1.2 2.4
Called a crisis line Note F: too unreliable to be published Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable 1.2 0.8 1.7
Took some other action 10.8 9.3 12.6 9.8 8.5 11.2
Reasons for not taking action
Did not take action in at least one instance 92.4 91.4 93.2 90.8Note * 89.9 91.7
Didn't think it was serious enough 81.3 79.8 82.7 68.7Note * 67.1 70.1
Felt uncomfortable 24.7 23.2 26.3 48.1Note * 46.5 49.7
Didn't know what to do 24.5 23.0 26.1 42.4Note * 40.7 44.0
Didn't think it was their responsibility 25.8 24.3 27.3 31.6Note * 30.1 33.2
Felt there could be negative consequences for themselves or others 17.9 16.5 19.3 27.8Note * 26.4 29.2
Believed others were taking action 17.5 16.2 19.0 23.0Note * 21.6 24.5
Worried that taking action would affect peer relationships 14.6 13.4 15.8 19.2Note * 17.9 20.5
Felt worried for their own safety 7.7 6.7 8.7 18.4Note * 17.1 19.7
The targeted person asked them not to take action 8.5 7.6 9.6 16.4Note * 15.2 17.7
Felt taking action would endanger the targeted person 10.9 9.8 12.1 15.9Note * 14.7 17.2
Worried about what others would think of them 11.0 9.9 12.3 15.6Note * 14.4 16.9
Other reasons 15.5 14.2 16.8 14.9 13.7 16.1
... not applicable
F too unreliable to be published
Note *

significantly different from reference category (p < 0.05)

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Note †

reference category

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Note 1

Includes sexual jokes, unwanted sexual attention, inappropriate sexual comments about appearance or body, inappropriate discussion about sex life, displaying, showing or sending sexually explicit messages or materials, taking or posting inappropriate or sexually suggestive photos or videos of any student without consent, indecent exposure or inappropriate display of body parts in a sexual manner, repeated pressure from the same person for dates or sexual relationships, unwelcome physical contact or getting too close, and offering workplace benefits for engaging in sexual activity or being mistreated for not engaging in sexual activity.

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Note: Includes postsecondary students aged 18 to 24 (17 to 24 in Quebec) as of December 31, 2018 in the Canadian provinces who witnessed (saw or heard) unwanted sexualized behaviours in the past 12 months. Includes behaviours which occurred in the postsecondary setting, including on campus, off campus (if they occurred during travel to or from school, during an official or unofficial event organized by someone affiliated with the school, or during paid or unpaid employment, work placements or volunteer work associated with postsecondary studies) or online (where some or all of the people responsible were students, teachers or other people associated with the school). Excludes behaviours that respondents heard about from someone else (e.g., something that a friend confided in them). The categories "women" and "men" include cisgender and transgender women and men. Percent calculations are based on unrounded estimates and include missing responses. Respondents were able to provide information on multiple incidents; therefore, percentages do not add to 100. Confidence intervals should be interpreted as follows: If the survey were repeated many times, then 95% of the time (or 19 times out of 20), the confidence interval would cover the true population value.
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population.
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