Symposia
Military and Veterans Psychology
Shannon L. Exley, PhD
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Washington, District of Columbia
Natasha Schvey, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bethesda, Maryland
Emily Ricker, Ph.D.
Scientist, Consortium for Health and Military Performance, Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bend, Oregon
Amelia Barrett, M.S., ATC
Program Manager, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
Uniformed Services University
Bethesda, Maryland
Sarah de la Motte, PhD, MPH, ATC
Scientific Director, Injury Prevention Research Laboratory, Consortium for Health and Military Performance, Department of Military and Emergency Medicineory
Uniformed Services University
Bethesda, Maryland
Background: The U.S. military has historically been a male-dominated occupation and is presently majority male. While the number of female service members (SMs) has grown, female SMs may be affected by gender-based stigma due to their minority group membership. Data on gender-based stigma and its sequelae in military women are sparse. The current study, therefore, assessed gender-based stigma, associations with perceived stress, and putative protective factors among female officers during military training. It was hypothesized that female officers who reported gender-based stigma would report greater stress than officers who did not report stigma. It was also hypothesized that coping style would mediate and resilience would moderate the association between gender-based stigma and perceived stress.
Methods: Participants completed self-report questionnaires at the conclusion of an officer training course, including an adapted Stigmatizing Situations Inventory to assess gender-based stigma in the military, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Brief COPE Inventory, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10), and a demographics survey assessing age, racial identity, and sex. Linear regressions were used to examine associations between stigma and perceived stress, adjusting for age and race.
Results: Eighty-two female officers responded (25.24 ± 3.18y; 29.3% racial/ethnic minority). The majority (79.3%) reported at least one experience of gender-based stigma during their time in the military. The most commonly reported experiences were “Being perceived as unstable or 'emotional' because of your gender” (37.7%) and “Having people assume you have emotional problems because you are a woman” (36.2%). There was no significant association between the presence of stigma and perceived stress. Examinations of coping style as a mediator and resilience as a moderator also did not yield significant results.
Conclusion: Experiences of gender-based stigma in this population were common. However, in contrast to research among other stigmatized groups, the presence of stigma was not related to perceived stress. Gender-based stigma among military women in different environments, including training and deployment, and associations with mental health outcomes should be further explored. Longitudinal examinations of intersectional stigma (e.g. stigma based on both race and gender) and mental health are needed to fully understand the impacts of stigma on physical and psychological health, which may ultimately affect the readiness of SMs.