Local social norms and military sexual stressors: do senior officers' norms matter?

To examine the relative importance of harassment-tolerant norms emanating from troops senior officers, immediate supervisors, and units on troops' sexual stressor experiences and to see whether associations differed by sex. Cross-sectional survey of all 681 willing and confirmed active duty troops enrolled in the VA National Enrollment Database between 1998 and 2002. Findings extended an earlier analysis. After adjusting for other significant correlates, senior officers' perceived tolerance of sexual harassment was not associated with the severity of sexual harassment troops reported (p = 0.64) or with the numbers of sexual identity challenges they reported (p = 0.11). Harassment-tolerant norms emanating from troops' units and immediate supervisors were associated with reporting more severe sexual harassment and more sexual identity challenges (all p < 0.003). Findings generalized across sex. Senior officers' norms did not appear to affect troops' reports of military sexual stressors, but unit norms and immediate supervisors' norms did.