Development of the Academic Harassment Tendency Scale for Science Academia

Academic harassment, which is the abuse of power in higher education, is a global concern in science academia. It hinders the careers of young researchers, particularly graduate students, and creates a toxic environment that fosters misconduct and turnover. Consequently, scientific progress is slowed and national scientific integrity is undermined. The specific psychological tendencies of harassers could be a potential antecedent of harassment. However, as the full range of these tendencies has not been explored, we developed and validated the Academic Harassment Tendency Scale for Science Academia (AHTS-SA). The initial AHTS-SA was developed based on a preliminary survey through item generation, content validation, and examination of the score distribution. The main survey consisted of two phases. In Phase 1, 267 faculty members (245 men, 22 women) and 233 graduate students (131 men, 101 women, and 1 other) in science academia completed the initial AHTS-SA along with other harassment-related scales. As a result, exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors: self-centered entitlement, ageism, and emotional dysregulation. In Phase 2, the initial AHTS-SA was readministered 1 month later to all Phase 1 participants, and the responses from 60 participants were analyzed to examine the test-retest reliability. Reliability was confirmed through internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Convergent and concurrent validities were also confirmed by correlating the AHTS-SA with the Perception of Academic Harassment and Gender Harassment Scales developed in Japan. The AHTS-SA is a potential tool for quality assurance within organizations and for individual researchers to become aware of their emotions and biases.