Differences in Awareness of sexual violence according to witnessing experience; for military personnel

This study explored to by comparing military workers' sexual violence awareness, gender consciousness, perception of secondary damage of sexual violence and social self-efficacy according to whether they have witnessed sexual violence or not, influencing factors related to the possibility of colleague' intervention were. 234 people were analyzed using a survey platform from June 1, 2023 to September 29, 2023, using a snowball sampling targeting military personnel working in front and rear areas. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the t-test, the χ 2 test, Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, and logistic regression. Significant differences were observed between those who had witnessed sexual violence or not in terms of sexual violence awareness and social self-efficacy(p<0.01). Experience of witnessing sexual violence was correlated with gender consciousness (r=0.38,p<.05) and social self-efficacy (r=0.58, p<0.001), and gender awareness was correlated with secondary victimization (r=0.08, p=0.01). Compared to the group without experience witnessing sexual violence, the group that the experiences had 1.20 times higher awareness of sexual violence(p=0.042), 2.15 times higher secondary victimization(p=.017), and 1.21 times higher social self-efficacy(p<.05). Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a witness program that can serve as bystanders and witnesses to co-workers to prevent sexual violence, and continuous related education is needed who can expect to play a social role as military workers.