Military Sexual Assault, Post-Service Employment, and Transition Preparation among U.S. Military Veterans: New Directions for Research

Figures & data

Table 1. Survey and sample demographic comparison.

	Entire survey (N = 5,157)	Analysis sample (n = 4,407)
	n (%)	n (%)	p
Sex
Male	4203 (84.4)	3726 (84.5)	.682
Female	691 (13.9)	610 (13.8)	.991
Other	85 (1.7)	62 (1.4)	.247
Total valid	n = 4979	n = 4398
Age
18–30	54 (1.1)	43 (1.0)	.662
31–40	1497 (29.6)	1297 (29.4)	.887
41–50	1571 (31.1)	1357 (31.2)	.806
51–65	1497 (28.7)	1296 (29.4)	.868
Over 65	458 (8.9)	391 (8.9)	.769
Total valid	n = 5059	n = 4403
Race and ethnicity^a
White	3844 (77.6)	3445 (78.6)	.249
Black or African American	387 (7.8)	333 (7.6)	.696
Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish	569 (10.4)	486 (11.1)	.543
American Indian or Alaskan Native	199 (3.6)	167 (3.4)	.606
Asian	184 (3.4)	164 (3.7)	.946
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander	42 (0.8)	37 (0.8)	.984
Other	261 (4.8)	221 (5.0)	.620
Total valid	n = 4953	n = 4383
Veteran status
Veteran (yes)	4888 (94.8)	4168 (94.6)	.653
Post-9/11 veteran (yes)	4655 (90.3)	4002 (90.8)	.365
Total valid	n = 5157	n = 4407
Enlistment status
Enlisted	3734 (72.4)	3276 (76.2)	.192
Officer/warrant officer	1094 (21.2)	1024 (23.8)	.192
Total valid	n = 4828	n = 4300

^aThis item is coded as select all that apply, so counts indicate yes on a given category and the percentage reflects the percent of cases. Individuals endorsed a mean of 1.1 categories.

Table 2. Military sexual assault survey items.

	Total	Male	Female	Sex diff.
	N (% total)	N (% males)	N (% females)	p
Experienced military sexual assault	526 (11.9)	151 (4.1)	358 (58.7)	.000*
If experienced (n = 526) did you report?	178 (33.8)	36 (23.8)	134 (37.4)	.002*
If not reported (n = 348) why not?
Did not think anything would be done	242 (69.9)	68 (60.2)	167 (74.6)	.007*
Fear of retaliation by my peers or chain of command	195 (56.4)	48 (42.5)	142 (63.4)	.000*
Concerned about impact on my career	189 (54.6)	52 (46.0)	132 (58.9)	.025*
Doubted that my chain of command would believe me	176 (50.9)	47 (41.6)	125 (55.8)	.014*
Concerned that my peers would treat me differently	171 (49.4)	65 (57.5)	102 (45.5)	.038*
Did not want to be involved in an investigation	161 (46.5)	47 (41.6)	111 (49.6)	.167
Worried I was less valued than perpetrator	117 (33.8)	27 (23.9)	86 (38.4)	.008*
Worried that people would think I was weak	114 (32.9)	47 (41.6)	66 (29.5)	.026*
Worried family/friends would treat me differently	57 (16.5)	29 (25.7)	26 (11.6)	.000*
Other	60 (17.3)	30 (26.5)	29 (12.9)	.002*
If reported (n = 178) did you experience retaliation?	112 (62.9)	17 (47.2)	90 (67.2)	.024*
View of trained military prosecutor rather than commander to handle complaint
More likely to report	267 (51.0)	60 (40.0)	196 (54.9)	.002*
Would not change my decision	242 (46.2)	82 (54.7)	156 (43.7)	.024*
Less likely to report	15 (2.9)	8 (5.3)	5 (1.4)	.011*

*p < .05.

Table 3. Key measures by military sexual assault survivor status.

	Military sexual assault
	Yes	No
	N (%)	N (%)	Sig. (p)
Current employment
Full-time	216 (44.2)	2091 (60.1)	.000*
Part-time	39 (8.0)	185 (5.3)	.009*
Unemployed, looking for work	33 (6.7)	170 (4.9)	.040*
Unemployed, not looking for work	25 (5.1)	81 (2.3)	.000*
Retired, not employed	48 (9.8)	509 (14.6)	.002*
Disabled or otherwise unable to work	128 (26.2)	443 (12.7)	.000*
Time until employment after transition
Less than 3 months	57 (15.2)	666 (28.8)	.000*
3–6 months	69 (18.4)	489 (21.1)	.119
Between 6 and 9 months	33 (8.8)	226 (9.8)	.285
Between 9 and 12 months	27 (7.2)	168 (7.3)	.490
Over 12 months	129 (34.5)	421 (18.2)	.000*
Never unemployed	8 (2.1)	79 (3.4)	.098
Opted to attend school	51 (13.6)	267 (11.5)	.121
How prepared were you to navigate
(1 = very unprepared, 5 = very prepared)
Transition from military to civilian life	2.52 (1.350)	3.00 (1.357)	.000*
Transition to post-service employment	2.41 (1.400)	3.00 (1.394)	.000*
Access to post-service education	2.92 (1.397)	3.24 (1.317)	.000*
Resources available in your local community	2.03 (1.253)	2.59 (1.298)	.000*
Healthcare and benefits system	2.47 (1.382)	2.90 (1.351)	.000*
Overall scale (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.878)	2.42 (1.023)	2.86 (1.098)	.000*
Mean length of service in years	6.87 (3.506)	7.18 (3.378)	.235

* p < .05.

Levene’s test indicates unequal variance in individual scale items, so p-values presented for those items are calculated using the more conservative, non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test.

Table 4. Multinomial logistic regression model comparing current employment status and military sexual assault (reference category = full-time employment).

	B	S.E.	Sig.	EXP(B)	CI – low	CI – High
Unemployed, looking for work
Intercept	−2.321	0.372	0.000
Sex (male = 1)	0.334	0.275	0.225	1.396	0.814	2.394
Age (over 40 years old = 1)	−0.002	0.163	0.990	0.998	0.725	1.373
Enlistment (officer/warrant = 1)	−0.170	0.204	0.405	0.844	0.566	1.258
White	−0.701	0.244	0.004	0.496	0.307	0.800
Black	0.427	0.295	0.148	1.532	0.859	2.732
Hispanic	−0.011	0.270	0.966	0.989	0.583	1.677
Asian, Hawaiian, or Pac Islander	−0.296	0.388	0.447	0.744	0.348	1.593
Amer Indian or Alaskan	0.074	0.409	0.856	1.077	0.483	2.402
Military sexual assault survivor	0.784	0.270	0.004	2.190	1.290	3.717
Unemployed, not looking for work
Intercept	−2.867	0.474	0.000
Sex (male = 1)	−0.486	0.321	0.130	0.615	0.328	1.154
Age (over 40 years old = 1)	0.086	0.218	0.693	1.090	0.711	1.669
Enlistment (officer/warrant = 1)	−0.419	0.286	0.144	0.658	0.375	1.153
White	0.016	0.344	0.963	1.016	0.518	1.995
Black	0.225	0.447	0.616	1.252	0.521	3.009
Hispanic	0.278	0.360	0.440	1.320	0.652	2.675
Asian, Hawaiian, or Pac Islander	0.263	0.474	0.579	1.301	0.514	3.292
Amer Indian or Alaskan	−0.074	0.604	0.902	0.928	0.284	3.033
Military sexual assault survivor	0.782	0.334	0.019	2.186	1.136	4.204
Disabled or otherwise unable to work
Intercept	−2.147	0.250	0.000
Sex (male = 1)	0.380	0.179	0.034	1.463	1.030	2.078
Age (over 40 years old = 1)	0.744	0.114	0.000	2.105	1.683	2.631
Enlistment (officer/warrant = 1)	−0.870	0.147	0.000	0.419	0.314	0.559
White	−0.265	0.163	0.104	0.767	0.557	1.056
Black	0.296	0.207	0.153	1.345	0.896	2.018
Hispanic	−0.069	0.181	0.704	0.934	0.655	1.331
Asian, Hawaiian or Pac Islander	−0.347	0.279	0.214	0.707	0.409	1.221
Amer Indian or Alaskan	0.891	0.210	0.000	2.439	1.617	3.677
Military sexual assault survivor	1.300	0.171	0.000	3.668	2.624	5.128

Nagelkerke’s R-squared = 0.152. Significance of p < .05 indicated in bold. Full model also considers part-time employment and retired or no longer working. For brevity, these results are not presented as military sexual assault survivor is non-significant for these categories.

Table 5. Multinomial logistic regression model comparing the time from military transition to securing employment and military sexual assault (reference category = less than 3 months).

Over 12 months	B	S.E.	Sig.	EXP(B)	CI – low	CI – High
Intercept	0.195	0.299	0.514
Sex (male = 1)	−0.399	0.210	0.057	0.671	0.445	1.012
Age (over 40 years old = 1)	−0.413	0.130	0.002	0.662	0.513	0.854
Enlistment (officer/warrant = 1)	0.476	0.160	0.003	1.610	1.176	2.203
White	−0.270	0.203	0.183	0.763	0.513	1.136
Black	0.607	0.281	0.031	1.836	1.057	3.187
Hispanic	0.209	0.223	0.348	1.233	0.796	1.908
Asian, Hawaiian, or Pac Islander	0.412	0.346	0.234	1.511	0.766	2.978
Amer Indian or Alaskan	0.556	0.284	0.051	1.744	0.999	3.044
Military sexual assault survivor	0.942	0.219	0.000	2.566	1.670	3.943

Nagelkerke’s R-squared = 0.066. Significance of p < .05 indicated in bold. Full model also considers 3–6 months, between 6 and 9 months, and between 9 and 12 months. For brevity, these results are not presented as military sexual assault survivor is non-significant for these categories.

Table 6. OLS regression model transition preparedness scale versus years of service and military sexual assault experiences.

	MODEL 0 – Controls			Model 1 – years of service			Model 2 – military sexual assault
	B	t	Sig.	B	t	Sig.	B	t	Sig.
Constant	2.311	17.150	0.000	2.076	13.950	0.000	2.350	14.374	0.000
Male	0.102	1.161	0.246	0.084	0.958	0.338	−0.170	−1.570	0.117
Over 40 years old	0.033	0.428	0.669	0.004	0.057	0.955	−0.003	−0.037	0.970
Officer/warrant officer	0.441	3.544	0.000	0.396	3.188	0.001	0.393	3.186	0.001
White	0.159	1.427	0.154	0.164	1.481	0.139	0.163	1.488	0.137
Black	0.234	1.508	0.132	0.238	1.543	0.123	0.239	1.560	0.119
Hispanic	0.011	0.098	0.922	0.017	0.150	0.881	0.008	0.066	0.947
Asian, Hawaiian or Pac Islander	0.037	0.249	0.803	0.029	0.195	0.846	−0.018	−0.121	0.904
Amer Indian or Alaskan	−0.427	−2.304	0.021	−0.441	−2.391	0.017	−0.443	−2.419	0.016
Years in service				0.037	3.631	0.000	0.038	3.799	0.000
Military sexual assault survivor							−0.442	−3.920	0.000
F	3.112			4.263			5.426
R-squared	0.023			0.035			0.049
Adj. R-squared	0.016			0.027			0.040
R-squared change	0.023			0.012			0.014

N = 1,064. Significance of p < .05 indicated by bold, and p < .01 indicated by bold and italics.