ROTC cadet assessment of Military Sexual Trauma: An Educational Intervention

Objectives: The aim of this project was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of ROTC and military science students regarding the military sexual assault prevention program at a rural Midwestern University. Methods: A total of 23 participants in the ROTC program or taking military sciences courses were recruited to participate using a pretest/posttest design to determine their knowledge and attitudes of military sexual trauma (MST) training. Nine of the participants completed the project, which consisted of an hour and a half long educational intervention. A demographics, MST pre/posttest, and educational evaluation were designed to determine knowledge and attitudes before and after the educational intervention. Results: Of the pretest participants, many indicated that they were currently serving in the military in the Reserve or National Guard. Participants had a wide range of MST training hours from no training to 16 hours on the subject. Findings suggested there was no direct link in pretest knowledge and scores after the MST educational intervention, however a majority of the participants’ attitudes were supportive of the education. Conclusions: Results were inconclusive with the limited number of returning participants. Although the sample size was small, the outcomes of the current participants indicated the merit of future projects with a larger sample