NCJ Number
174145
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: February 1998 Pages: 40-57
Date Published
1998
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The goals of this study were to determine the rates of sexual victimization experience among women during military deployment; to examine relationships between harassment severity and variables that may moderate their effects; and to assess the effects of harassment events on psychological status.
Abstract
Within 5 days of their return to the United States in 1991 (Time 1), 2,949 army personnel at Ft. Devens, Mass. were surveyed, using a 45-minute paper-and-pencil survey. The 240 women in this cohort came from 30 army units that included active duty (n=62), reservists (n=66), and National Guard (n=112). Researchers recontacted the full cohort for a follow-up survey (Time 2) at face-to-face unit meetings in 1993 to 1994 (18-24 months following the initial survey) or by mail when unit meetings were not feasible (20 percent of the follow-up sample). The follow-up rate for women in the general survey was 80.8 percent (n=194). Participants were 160 women who returned and completed the sexual harassment questionnaire. At Time 1, study participants completed a number of self-report measures, including those assessing Persian Gulf combat exposure, other deployment stressors, and coping style. The sexual harassment survey included three Likert-scaled items that queried respondents about the occurrence of three events during their Persian Gulf deployment: verbal sexual harassment, physical sexual harassment, and a sexual experience that was unwanted and involved the use of threat of force either by strangers or persons known. Rates of sexual assault (7.3 percent), physical sexual harassment (33.1 percent), and verbal sexual harassment (66.2 percent) were higher than those typically found in civilian and peacetime military samples. Sexual assault had a larger impact on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology than combat exposure. Frequency of physical sexual harassment was significantly predictive of PTSD symptomatology. Further, the number of postwar stressful life events mediated the relationship between physical sexual harassment and symptomatology, but was not related to combat exposure. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and combat exposure apparently are qualitatively different stressors for women, with different correlates and mechanisms of action. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 30 references