Investigating the prevalence and impact of Military sexual trauma on UK women Service personnel: Implications for mental health, help-seeking and future design of support services

Military sexual trauma (MST), sexual assault/harassment during military service, predicts significant mental health outcomes, such as PTSD (Allard et al., 2011). Women face a disproportionate risk of experiencing MST (Wilson, 2018). Additionally, women military personnel and Veterans face unique barriers to engaging with support services (Godier-McBard et al.,2021). Understanding how support services can better engage and support women is crucial to mitigate the potential adverse mental healht consequences of MST. The absence of UK-specific research on MST prevents the optimal tailoring of support services. This PhD project will explore the prevalence, risk factors, mental health consequences, and help-seeking patterns associated with MST in UK women Service personnel to understand how to support this population.

This doctorate project aims to investigate the prevalence of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and Military sexual trauma (MST) experienced by women who served during the Iraq/Afghanistan era in both military and non-military settings in the UK. This project will quantitatively examine the mental health and help-seeking outcomes associated with sexual harassment/assault, and compare them with women who have not experienced these forms of trauma. In addition, this project will seek to explore women Service personnel' and Veterans' experiences of sexual harassment or assault, the cultures surrounding unacceptable behaviours in service, and the appropriateness of/and engagement with support services.

A systematic review will investigate mental health outcomes of MST reported in the literature to-date. A quantitative study, employing regression analyses, will investigate the mental health outcomes and help-seeking behaviours associated with sexual assault and/or harassment in military and non-military settings. A qualitative study, employing interviews with women with and without experiences of MST, will explore women’s experiences in the military, potential experiences of sexual harassment/assault and help-seeking behaviours. 

• What is the prevalence of MST, sexual harassment and/or assault experienced in military and non-military settings in UK women veterans?
• What are the mental health and help-seeking outcomes of women who have experienced sexual harassment and/or assault?
• What are womens’ experiences of sexual harassment and/or assault, cultures surrounding unacceptable behaviours in service, and appropriateness of/and engagement with support services?

Participants will comprise women UK veterans recruited from the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) Cohort Study.