Contrasting ecological contexts among treatment-seeking military sexual assault survivors: Consideration of relationships with sexual and gender minority identification

Paulson, J. L., Florimbio, A. R., Rogers, T. A., Hartl Majcher, J., Bennett, D. C., & Sexton, M. B. (2024). Contrasting ecological contexts among treatment-seeking military sexual assault survivors: Consideration of relationships with sexual and gender minority identification. Psychological Services, 21(1), 139–147. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000656

The social-ecological model suggests that there are both risk and protective factors in every “level” of our environment (e.g., individual, interpersonal, and community). In a sample of Veterans seeking mental health treatment for military sexual trauma (N = 493), this study explored risk and protective factors at different social-ecological levels and examined whether risk and protective factors differed between sexual and gender minority (SGM) Veterans and non-SGM Veterans. Veterans seeking treatment from a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinic between 2009–2019 (n = 63 SGM; n = 430 non-SGM) self-reported the presence of risk and protective factors at the individual (i.e., financial sufficiency, spiritual beliefs), interpersonal (i.e., social support system, exposure to interpersonal violence), and community (i.e., housing instability) levels. In general, SGM Veterans had a harder time making ends meet (i.e., financial sufficiency) and experienced more housing instability than non-SGM Veterans.

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