What Type of Psychological Responses are Associated with Military Sexual Trauma Victimization?
Given the range of sexual victimization experiences that veterans report (ranging from inappropriate sexual jokes or flirtation, to pressure for sexual favors, to completed forcible rape) there are a wide range of emotional reactions reported by veterans in response to these events. Even in the aftermath of severe forms of victimization, there is no one way that victims will respond. Instead, the intensity, duration, and trajectory of psychological responses will all vary based on factors like the veterans’ previous trauma history, their appraisal of the traumatic event, and the quality of their support systems following the trauma. In addition, the victim’s gender may play a role in the intensity of the post-trauma reactions. While the types of psychological reactions experienced by men and women are often similar, the experience of sexual victimization may be even more stigmatizing for men than it is for women because these victimization experiences fall so far outside of the proscri
