Military-related sexual assault in Canada: a cross-sectional survey

Most research on military-related sexual assault is based on the United States military and has important limitations, such as low response rates. We sought to estimate the lifetime prevalence of sexual assault, assess its relation to military service and identify the circumstances, correlates and associations with mental disorders of military-related sexual assault among Canadian military personnel.

We used the 2013 Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey, a cross-sectional representative survey of Canadian Regular Force personnel (n = 6696). The sample was weighted to be representative of the entire Canadian Armed Forces Regular Force population in 2012 (n = 67 776), as per Statistics Canada requirements. We assessed lifetime trauma exposure and past-year mental disorders using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. We defined lifetime military-related sexual assault as forced sexual activity or unwanted sexual touching that occurred on deployment or in another military workplace, or was perpetrated by Department of National Defence or Canadian Armed Forces personnel. We defined all other sexual assault as non-military-related sexual assault.

Self-reported sexual assault was more prevalent among women (non-military-related sexual assault 24.2%, military-related sexual assault 15.5%) than men (5.9% and 0.8%, respectively). About a quarter of women with military-related sexual assault reported experiencing at least 1 event on deployment. After covariates were controlled for, military-related sexual assault was independently associated with any lifetime and any past-year mental disorder (adjusted odds ratio 2.9 and 3.0, respectively) and lifetime and past-year posttraumatic stress disorder (adjusted odds ratio 4.3 and 4.1, respectively).

Canadian military women are at increased risk for sexual assault and military-related sexual assault relative to their male counterparts. Deployment may be a period of elevated risk for military-related sexual assault, and women who reported military-related sexual assault are more likely to have experienced mental disorders, especially posttraumatic stress disorder.