Sexual Assault Research in the Military: Is Oversampling Necessary for Representativeness?

Area of Science:

• Military Health Research
• Sexual Assault Prevention
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Sexual assault in the U.S. Military is a significant issue requiring representative data for effective prevention and intervention.
• Recruiting diverse service members for sexual assault research is crucial for understanding the problem's scope.
• This study addresses challenges in obtaining representative samples for military sexual assault research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine response and completion rates of an anonymous survey on sexual assault and alcohol use among active duty sailors aged 18-24.
• To inform future recruitment strategies for sexual assault research in the military.
• To achieve a representative sample for understanding sexual assault and alcohol use in the Navy.

Main Methods:

• An anonymous survey on sexual assault and alcohol use was administered to active duty sailors aged 18-24.
• Women were intentionally oversampled to ensure adequate representation due to lower overall numbers in the Navy.
• Survey invitations were emailed to 12,031 active duty sailors (64.3% male, 35.7% female).

Main Results:

• Response rates were disproportionately higher for female sailors (8.8%) compared to male sailors (3.0%).
• Survey completion rates were similar between genders: 81.2% for males and 80.1% for females.
• Female sailors showed a significantly higher likelihood of participating in the study.

Conclusions:

• Female sailors are more likely to participate in sexual assault and alcohol use research than male sailors.
• Once enrolled, both male and female sailors complete questionnaires at similar rates.
• Engaging male service members in sexual assault research presents challenges, potentially requiring adjusted sampling strategies, possibly oversampling men, to achieve representativeness.