Ph.D candidate Shannon Forkus’ study funded by Kirchstein Award from National Institute on Drug Abuse
Military sexual trauma is a serious and pervasive problem among military populations, affecting about 16 percent of military personnel and veterans, and a disproportionate number of victims are affected by substance use disorders. Clarifying the relationship between military sexual trauma and substance use is the aim of a University of Rhode Island College of Health Sciences student’s study, recently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Psychology doctoral candidate Shannon Forkus has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award to continue her study into predicting substance use among military veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma. The two-year award is designed to “enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientists.” It will fund Forkus’ study and research training while she completes her degree.
Forkus, herself a veteran of the U.S. Army, will use the award to examine data from the Army’s Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers, the largest study of mental health risk conducted among military personnel. Previous findings suggest that individuals with a history of military sexual trauma are twice as likely to misuse substances. Further, negative substance use outcomes have been shown to be more severe among trauma-exposed populations, including more severe clinical presentations and poorer treatment prognosis.
During the next two years, Forkus will study the data in-depth, working with her primary mentor, URI Psychology Assistant Professor Nicole Weiss, as well as research partners Kristina Jackson at Brown University, A.J. Rosellini at Boston University, and Lindsey Monteith at the Rocky Mountain MIREC for VA Suicide Prevention. Her goal is to determine whether experiencing military sexual trauma leads to worse substance use outcomes, and, utilizing more advanced analytical data methods, develop an algorithm to better classify and predict substance use outcomes among military personnel, particularly those who have experienced military sexual trauma.
“Part of the project is getting that training experience, learning how to do this to better predict outcomes using large data sets,” Forkus said. “I’ve always been interested in military trauma more broadly, and then I got interested in military sexual trauma specifically. It’s something that is really problematic. Some women and men who are deployed are coming back with PTSD from this military sexual trauma, as opposed to combat or some other experience. My goal is to look at the relationship between the trauma and substance abuse.”
Forkus has found reporting of sexual trauma to be inconsistent in military data. She did a systematic review, looking at all the literature on military sexual trauma and risky behaviors which included substance use. The incidence of sexual trauma in the military is often reported in wide ranges, largely because of inconsistencies in the way sexual trauma is defined. Sometimes, reporting includes only sexual assault; other times it includes assault and sexual harassment.
“There were really inconsistent findings regarding substance use outcomes, specifically substance use among military people who have experienced trauma or PTSD,” Forkus said.
“There are a lot of flaws in how it’s measured and how it’s defined. So that’s one of the main reasons to do this research, and why it’s so important to build on the research that’s already been done in this area. There are a lot of barriers to reporting it in the military culture and getting treatment for it.”
Short-term, Forkus hopes to contribute to the literature in this area and help better clarify the relationship between military sexual trauma and substance use. Long-term, she hopes the outcomes will fuel future studies into military sexual trauma to help establish interventions and prevent substance use problems among groups who have experienced military sexual trauma.