Military Sexual Trauma with Military Transition As a Moderator for Relationship Issues Among Female and Male Veterans

Background and Purpose: Sexual harassment and assault within the US military continues to be a prevalent issue.  While there has been a growing body of work on military sexual trauma (MST), there has been little research on the impact of MST on relationship issues and no research on the potential impact of military transition on relationship issues.  Research has shown MST is an indicator for posttraumatic stress disorder, comorbid diagnoses, risky behaviors, and a contributor of intimacy issues.  The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of military sexual harassment and assault on relationship issues with consideration for veterans’ transition from the military to civilian life.

Methods: A sample of 2,583 veterans was obtained through two cross-sectional, needs assessment surveys conducted in 2013 in two counties of Southern California.  In each county, an extensive recruitment strategy was employed, including utilizing collaboration with national, state, county, and local organizations that work with veterans, to obtain a nonprobability sample.  The survey assessed veterans’ needs across various aspects of life.  All responses were based on self-reports.  The current study utilized measures of MST, military transition, and relationship issues.  MST was assessed by asking yes/no/unsure on two questions assessing the presence of 1) sexual harassment and 2) sexual assault.  Military transition was based on ten questions on a 5-point Likert scale, such as I had a permanent place to live when I left the military.  Relationship issues included eight yes/no questions, such as currently dissatisfied with relationship.  Demographic, mental health, and military factors were assessed and compared among female veterans with and without MST.  Logistic regression with moderation was used to examine associations between MST, military transition, and relationship issues for female veterans.

Results: Experiences of military sexual harassment and sexual assault were reported by 15.57% and 9.23% for the sample, respectively.  Relationship issues were present for 42.14% of the sample.  The military transition scale (10-50) had a mean of 28.88 with a sd of 7.85, with higher scores indicating a positive experience.  For males sexual harassment and sexual assault were not significant for relationship issues.  However, males with depression were significantly more likely to have relationship issues.  For females sexual assault was not significant for relationship issues, while sexual harassment was significant for relationship issues.  Overall, for females military transition was a trending moderator on relationship issues.  When assessing the predicted odds, female victims of sexual harassment were 6.49 times more likely to have relationship issues if they experienced a negative transition.  Lastly, when compared to Latinas, White females odds of relationship issues are 19.23 times higher. 

Conclusions and Implications: This study has implications for designing military transition interventions for female military sexual harassment victims in regards to relationship issues.  Research shows MST can have a long term impact on mental health and this study indicates MST has long term impacts on relationship issues.  By establishing resources that target interventions for service members during transition we may be able to lessen the negative impact, particularly its contribution to relationship issues.