Date

12-7-2023

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

James Kasten

Keywords

intimate partner relationships, military sexual trauma, sexual harassment, sexual assault, PTSD

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe active duty and military veterans’ experiences with intimate partner relationships after a sexually traumatic event. The theory guiding this study is attachment theory. Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), demonstrate they could help victims of military sexual trauma (MST) minimize the suffering of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), substance use disorder (SUD), and a host of other debilitating diseases that may have developed as the result of their MST, which could cause difficulties in their intimate partner relationships. Interviewing each participant, this study collected the stories of active-duty service members and veterans who have experienced an MST. MST can come in many forms, but this study focused on service members who have experienced sexual harassment (SH) or sexual assault (SA). SH and SA can be experienced by everyone, but this study focused on heterosexual service members. Those interviews, once analyzed using narrative and grounded theory analytics to articulate the similarities, outlined what similarities each person experienced, if they have received treatment, and which treatment was the most effective. How has the military sexual traumatic event you experienced impacted your intimate partner sexual relationship is what this study set out to answer.

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