Grimes Kathryn E L, Scaglione Nichole M, Kan Marni L, Frerichs Leah, Shea Christopher M, Stover Angela M
RTI International, Health Practice Area, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America.
Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 16;20(1):e0317557. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317557. eCollection 2025.
Preventing sexual assault in the United States (U.S.) military is essential to safeguard the overall well-being of military personnel and support the military to function in alignment with its intended mission and objectives. Valid instruments are needed to accurately and reliably evaluate programming effectiveness. The goal of this research was to psychometrically assess measures used to evaluate the Sexual Communication and Consent (SCC) program within the Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT) context.
We evaluated four measures used to assess the SCC program implemented at Air Force BMT in 2019-2020: Date Rape Attitudes, Self-Efficacy to Resist Unwanted Advances, Risky and Protective Dating Behaviors, and Bystander Intentions. The analytic sample included 7,126 BMT trainees (74% male). We assessed structural validity with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We used full information maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors in Mplus. We refined each scale based on factor analysis results and assessed internal consistency reliability by computing Cronbach's coefficient alpha for each scale in the overall sample, by sex, and by tailored SCC intervention group.
We identified a two-factor structure for the Date Rape Attitudes scale; subscale reliability was moderate within the overall sample and among males, though low among females. We found single-factor structures and excellent reliability for both the Self-Efficacy to Resist Unwanted Advances scale and the Bystander Intentions scale. The Dating Behaviors scale CFA did not confirm the two-factor solution suggested by the EFA, but subscale reliability was acceptable.
This research fills a critical gap in the psychometric literature in military settings. Based on our findings, we recommend approaches for using the finalized scales in future evaluations of sexual assault prevention programming in the U.S. Air Force BMT setting.
在美国军队中预防性侵犯对于保障军事人员的整体福祉以及支持军队按照其既定使命和目标运作至关重要。需要有效的工具来准确可靠地评估项目成效。本研究的目的是从心理测量学角度评估在空军基础军事训练（BMT）背景下用于评估性沟通与同意（SCC）项目的各项测量工具。
我们评估了2019 - 2020年在空军BMT实施的用于评估SCC项目的四项测量工具：约会强奸态度、抵制不当行为的自我效能感、危险与保护性约会行为以及旁观者意图。分析样本包括7126名BMT学员（74%为男性）。我们通过探索性因素分析（EFA）和验证性因素分析（CFA）评估结构效度。我们在Mplus中使用带有稳健标准误的全信息最大似然估计。我们根据因素分析结果对每个量表进行优化，并通过计算总体样本、按性别以及按量身定制的SCC干预组中每个量表的克朗巴哈系数α来评估内部一致性信度。
我们确定了约会强奸态度量表的两因素结构；在总体样本和男性中，子量表信度中等，但在女性中较低。我们发现抵制不当行为的自我效能感量表和旁观者意图量表均为单因素结构且信度极佳。约会行为量表的CFA未证实EFA所建议的两因素解决方案，但子量表信度尚可。
本研究填补了军事环境中心理测量学文献的一个关键空白。基于我们的研究结果，我们推荐了在美国空军BMT环境中未来预防性侵犯项目评估中使用最终确定量表的方法。
