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Military MST
Military sexual trauma (MST) is a serious issue for both servicemen and servicewomen. MST can cause mental and physical illness and impair one's ability to interact socially with others.
To be explicit, MST is defined by the National Center for PTSD as unwelcome sexual attention including gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, unwanted sexual attention, sexual coercion, sexual assault, and rape (Street & Stafford, 2009).
MST is on the rise. According to the Department of Defense, gender and sexual harassment increased 11% across all military services, and 16% within the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq (DoD 2010).
It is the purpose of this paper to examine the culture of the military through the PEN-3 model to explain how military culture fosters MST.
Dr. Collins Airhihenbuwa of Penn State's Biobehavioral Health Dept. developed the PEN-3 model to put culture at the forefront of health promotion. The PEN-3 model consists of three paradigms for understanding the impact culture has on the health of a society: cultural identity, relationships and expectations and cultural empowerment.
The Cultural Identity of Military
The U.S. military promotes toughness, courage, strength,...
One sees this manifested in their slogans: 'Army Strong,' 'The Few The Proud,' 'A Global Force for Good,' etc. All of those are laudable virtues and attractive slogans. However, one has to question whether those virtues when preached and practiced to an extreme can lead to an environment of institutional isolationism where abuse, maltreatment and sexual assault go unreported. One could argue that a soldier would rather take the abuse than turn in an abuser, particularly if the abuser is a fellow solider. It's the military way, it is embedded in the cultural milieu: "endure the pain, and fight through, but don't bitch, moan, or complain." This is the cultural identity of the military.
Relationships and Expectations
When one joins the military, he/she expects to come out a different person. However, he/she does not expect to come out a victim of MST. Though, in looking at the numbers, it's clear that a large percentage of soldiers do experience MST while serving their country. "During the period 2003 to 2008, Veteran Affairs screening for MST revealed 48,106 women and 43, 693 men had experienced sexual assault during military service" (Hyun et al., 2009). Moreover, if one considers the broader definition of the MST, a VA study…
Works Cited
Cater, J., & Leach, J. (2011). Veterans, Military Sexual Trauma and PTSD:
Rehabilitation Planning Implications. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation
Counseling, 42(2), 33-40 Retrieved from Proquest at http://proquest.umi.com/pqdwebdid=2388951171&sid=6&Fmt=6&clientId=2944
0&RQT=309&VName=PQD
U.S. Department of Defense. (2010). Department of Defense Fiscal year 2009 annual report on sexual assault in military. Retrieved from http://www.sapr.mi
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