Student perceptions of dual relationships between faculty and students

One hundred sixty college undergraduates rated 109 hypothetical relationships between a male faculty member and an undergraduate student in terms of the degree to which they were sexual/dating, friendship/social, personal/counseling, business/financial, or professional/academic in nature and in terms of their intensity and appropriateness. Ratings of individual items revealed effects of gender of the student raters as well as gender of the student depicted in the scenarios. When students were depicted in personal but not clearly sexual relationships, the relationship was rated as more sexual if the student involved was a woman rather than a man. Moreover, female study participants were less likely to rate personal nonsexual relationships as having sexual overtones but were more sensitive to sexual overtones in explicitly sexual behavior. Similarly, female participants were more likely to react negatively, giving lower ratings of professionalism and appropriateness to financially exploitative relationships. At the same time, women were more likely to perceive the more positive attributes of dual relationships, giving higher ratings of both professionalism and appropriateness to those relationships that were largely professional in nature.