Bystander Response to Sexual Assault Disclosures in the U.S. Military: Encouraging Survivors to use Formal Resources

Experiencing military sexual assault (MSA) results in serious mental health consequences. Sexual assault survivors often disclose to informal sources of support, and how these individuals respond can have a significant effect on survivors’ wellbeing. Bystander intervention is one mechanism through which institutions, such as the U.S. Military, aim to teach informal support providers to respond positively and effectively to sexual assaults. One bystander response that survivors may find helpful is the discussion of formal resources (e.g., counseling options, reporting options). The current study examined factors associated with U.S. Service members’ intentions to encourage sexual assault survivors to report and seek mental health counseling, including individual characteristics (rank, gender, personal experience of MSA) and perceptions of military sexual assault response efforts (exposure to sexual assault training, leader response to sexual assault, service barriers). The study also examined contextual factors (branch) and interactions between individual and contextual predictors. We analyzed survey data from 27,505 active duty Service members collected by the U.S. Department of Defense. As expected, rank, gender, experience of MSA, training exposure, leader response, and service barriers were associated with Service members’ intentions to encourage MSA survivors to report and seek‐help. Bystander responses to disclosures can have a significant effect on survivors’ response to the assault, and these findings can help in identifying why bystanders may or may not encourage the use of formal resources after receiving a sexual assault disclosure.     

Does prior exposure to interpersonal violence increase risk of PTSD following subsequent exposure?

Research has generally found a “dose relationship” between potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and the likelihood of developing PTSD, with greater number of events associated with greater likelihood. Most of these studies have been cross-sectional, however. A recent prospective study (Breslau, Peterson, & Schultz, 2008) found that PTSD response to prior potentially traumatic event (PTE) exposure, rather than prior exposure itself, acts as a risk factor for PTSD in response to subsequent PTE; however, this analysis combined many different types of events, and the unique contribution of specific events (e.g., assault) that may be associated with differential risk of PTSD was indeterminable. The present study examined the effects of cumulative PTE exposure prospectively using a two-wave design in the National Survey of Adolescents (N = 1703). History of assault and witnessing serious violence were the focal PTEs examined. Wave I assault without PTSD was found to predict PTSD at Wave II following exposure to new assault or witnessed violence; however, among those without prior PTSD, Wave I witnessed violence did not increase risk of subsequent PTSD following exposure.     

Violent Movies and Severe Acts of Violence: Sensationalism Versus Science

Violent media has often been blamed for severe violent acts. Following recent findings that violence in movies has increased substantially over the last few decades, this research examined whether such increases were related to trends in severe acts of violence. Annual rates of movie violence and gun violence in movies were compared to homicide and aggravated assault rates between the years of 1960 and 2012. Time series analyses found that violent films were negatively, although nonsignificantly, related to homicides and aggravated assaults. These nonsignificant negative relations remained present even after controlling for various extraneous variables. Results suggest that caution is warranted when generalizing violent media research, conducted primarily in laboratories and via questionnaires, to societal trends in violent behavior.     

Using Ecological Theory to Evaluate the Effectiveness of an Indigenous Community Intervention: A Study of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Programs

In recent years, there has been renewed interest among community psychologists in indigenous interventions, which are programs created by local practitioners (rather than researchers) already rooted in their communities. Indigenous interventions have strong ecological validity, but their effectiveness is often unknown because so few are rigorously evaluated. The goal of this project was to use Kelly and Trickett’s ecological theory as a conceptual framework for evaluating an indigenous intervention and its mediating mechanisms of effectiveness. The focal intervention was a midwestern Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program, which provides post-assault medical care, crisis intervention, and medical forensic exams for sexual assault survivors. Prior studies of SANE programs have suggested that these interventions may help increase sexual assault prosecution rates. In this case example, we used a mixed methods design to determine if this program contributed to increased prosecution rates, and if so, why. Based on qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, we found substantial evidence for the Principle of Interdependence such that the SANE program strengthened the interconnections between the legal and medical systems, which contributed to increased prosecution. The intervention was effective in these outcomes because it promoted Cycling of Resources throughout the systems and fostered Adaptation of new roles for legal and medical personnel. Moving beyond this specific case example, this paper also examines cross-cutting advantages and struggles of using an ecological approach in the evaluation of indigenous community interventions.     

Distinguishing Hypotheses From Hyperbole in Studies of Media Violence: A Comment on Markey et al. (2015)

In alleging that Bushman et al. (2013) made sensational and unsubstantiated claims, Markey et al. (2015) mistake hypotheses for hyperbole. Moreover, in their effort to show that gun violence in PG‐13 movies (for ages 13 and older) is unrelated to trends in population violence, they make unjustified demands on our data, with outcomes that are unconnected to hypothesized effects. Using outcomes in line with our hypotheses, we draw the contrary conclusion that recent trends in gun violence in youth are actually consistent with gun violence trends in PG‐13 movies. Nevertheless, because we do not believe those patterns are sufficient to draw causal conclusions, we suggest more adequate tests of the hypothesis that exposure to movie gun violence affects the beliefs and attitudes of youth toward guns.