Supportinting Statement A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT - PART A

DoD-wide Data Collection and Analysis for Department of Defense Qualitative Data Collection in Support of the Independent Review Commission (IRC) on Sexual Assault Recommendations (OMB Control Number 0704-0644)

Title of Collection: Understanding Social Interactions and Sexual Behavior in the Military

Expected Fielding Dates: 01 September 2024 – 01 December 2024

1. Need for the Information Collection

This data collection is in support of the implementation of the Secretary of Defense-approved Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military’s (IRC-SAM) recommendations. In the IRC-SAM report, recommendation 2.6 advised that DoD develop a “state-of-the-art DoD prevention research capability” to better understand and develop prevention approaches for sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of violence. DoD Integrated Prevention Policy (DoD Instruction 6400.09 DoD Policy on Integrated Primary Prevention of Self-Directed Harm and Prohibited Abuse or Harm) establishes guidance for establishing a prevention system, which includes research and evaluation to advance the prevention system. DoD is conducting research in alignment with recommendation 2.6a “establish a dedicated research center for the primary prevention of interpersonal and self-directed violence.” To inform its primary prevention research capability, DoD seeks to understand the full range of sexual behavior, from consensual interactions to coercive or aggressive interactions, and how these behaviors relate to social experiences (e.g., peer norms, connectedness, command climate) in the military as well as personal factors (e.g., alcohol use, gender-related attitudes, childhood experiences). However, DoD’s current understanding of coercive and aggressive sexual behaviors is largely limited to surveys examining victimization (e.g., the Workplace and Gender Relations surveys); DoD survey research has not explored the full range of risk and protective factors for sexual assault and sexual harassment. The lack of research in this area impedes the development of evidence-based approaches to prevent perpetration, leading the IRC recommendations to stress the “urgency of research” in this area.

2. Use of the Information

The objective of this information collection is to conduct a survey to test a model of sexual behavior in the military, as it relates to potential risk factors for sexual assault perpetration. The model applies Malamuth’s Confluence Model (Malamuth, 1993) to a military context and examines the relationship between sexual behavior and childhood trauma, past misconduct, attitudes about sex and gender, sexual harassment, and key contextual factors (i.e., workplace hostility, peer attitudes, alcohol use, social connectedness). The IDA project team will distribute an anonymous online survey to male active duty service members at the ranks of E1-E4 in each branch of the military. Participation is restricted in this way to allow for a uniform set of questions tailored to this population.

The IDA project team will advertise the survey to potential participants at email addresses provided by DoD (sent from the email address of a member of the research team), including no more than six reminder emails. If additional participants are needed, IDA may post a notice on Military OneSource or Service websites to solicit participants. Volunteers will have to indicate their interest through their DoD e-mail to verify that they are Service members and complete an eligibility screener prior to participation. IDA may also work with the sponsor to engage points of contact (POCs) at local military installations, who are not in the chain of command, to inform Service members about the survey. This may include POCs a) sending emails to their units with information about the survey, b) posting flyers with information about the survey, c) providing information about the survey during pre-existing unit gatherings, and/or other activities. These in-person efforts may be needed due to limited or sporadic access to military email accounts among the study population. IDA will advise POCs to emphasize the voluntary nature of participation and only inform service members about the study, not persuade them to participate.

To participate in the study, participants will access the survey link (provided in the body of the email) from a personal device, outside of duty hours. Upon opening the link, participants will complete a brief 4-question eligibility screener to determine if they can proceed to the survey (i.e., must indicate that they are over 18, serving on Active Duty, male, and ranking E1-E4).¹ Those who are not eligible will receive a message that their participation is not needed at this time. Those who are eligible will proceed to a web-version of the informed consent form, which will include details about the study and contact information for the Principal Investigator and IRB, should the participant have questions about the study. The service member will need to scroll to the bottom of the web-version of the consent form to click a button that indicates his consent to participate and then proceeds to the survey. The form will instruct service members who do not wish to participate to simply exit the web browser.

Following the consent form, the participant will see an introduction that provides a summary of the study objectives and instructions for completing the survey. The survey follows, with approximately 175 individual questions; the duration of the survey is estimated to be 20 to 30 minutes. Participants may skip any survey questions they do not wish to answer, and they may exit the survey at any time. At the end of the survey, participants will click a button to submit their responses. After submission, the final screen will thank them for their time, list information about mental health resources that the participant can contact if needed. Finally, the screen will invite the participant to click a link to a separate data collector. The screen will indicate that their response to the separate data collector will not be linked in any way to their response to the survey. At this collector, the participant may elect to provide an email address for claiming a gift certificate. This second data collector will not be connected in any way to participant responses in the survey.

See section 3 (Use of Information Technology) for information on how the surveys will be processed once submitted. The end result of this collection will be to enable the research team to assess how sexual assault perpetration relates to key risk and protective factors to inform DoD’s primary prevention efforts. We will estimate the relationships in our model using linear structural equation modeling and logistic regression, where appropriate depending on the specification of the outcome variable (see Supporting Statement B for details).

3. Use of Information Technology

The survey will be administered online using an anonymous Qualtrics survey, which is a FedRAMP approved platform. Participants will access the survey through a link distributed via email, which will instruct participants to complete the survey on a personal electronic device. When participants submit the survey, Qualtrics will automatically store their responses in an online repository; a member of the IDA research team will export these responses into an encrypted CSV file and save it in a folder on an IDA network drive accessible only to members of the research team logged into IDA’s secure network or VPN using multi-factor authentication (User ID, password, and a token-generated code). A copy of this file will be stored in an encrypted flash drive, stored in a locked drawer in IDA’s secure office space, consistent with IDA’s standard practices for backing up highly-sensitive data.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

The information obtained through this collection is unique and is not already available for use or adaptation from another cleared source. In particular, the questions about sexual behavior, including sexual assault perpetration, are not included on any current DoD surveys. Although some individual survey measures are available on DoD surveys (e.g., alcohol use, connectedness), we must include these measures on this collection in order to test a model of sexual assault behavior (e.g., assess correlations between alcohol use, connectedness, and sexual behavior).

5. Burden on Small Businesses

This information collection does not impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses or entities.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

This is a one-time study effort, not a repeated collection. If the study were not conducted, DoD would not be able to assess how harmful sexual behaviors relate to social experiences in the military, childhood experiences, and personal factors. The Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military identified this type of information as critical to facilitating efforts to prevent harmful behaviors.

7. Paperwork Reduction Act Certification

This collection of information does not require collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Solicitation of Comments

Part A: PUBLIC NOTICE

A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection published on Friday, June 28, 2024. The 30-Day FRN citation is 89 FRN 68603.

We held discussions with Service members and former Service members about the survey instrument. Service members provided feedback to ensure that the wording was clear, the questions were appropriate for the military, and the length and format were feasible for timely completion. Service members also provided feedback about our recruitment materials, including the language used in the e-mail to participants, the timing of the e-mail, the frequency of reminder e-mails, and other methods the study team could use to recruit participants.

9. Gifts or Payment

To incentivize survey completion, service members will be informed that participants may claim a gift certificate for a nominal amount ($15-$35) at the end of the survey and that to do so, they must complete the survey outside of duty hours on a personal device. The incentive amount will start with a lower value, and if this is found not to be sufficient due to low response rates, the value will be increased. DoD policy specifies that if research incentive payments/gifts are provided, service members must participate in the research during non-duty hours. Participants will complete a separate survey to enter their email address to receive a gift certificate, and this email address cannot be linked to their survey responses.

10. Confidentiality

A Privacy Act Statement is not required for this collection because we are not requesting individuals to furnish personal information for a system of records. Further, IDA is an independent nonprofit corporation that operates FFRDCs for the Government. Therefore, IDA is not an “Agency” for the purposes of the Privacy Act.

A System of Record Notice (SORN) is not required for this collection because records are not retrievable by PII. Further, IDA is an independent nonprofit corporation that operates FFRDCs for the Government. Therefore, IDA is not an “Agency” for the purposes of the Privacy Act.

A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is not required for this collection because IDA is an independent nonprofit corporation that operates FFRDCs for the Government. Therefore, IDA is not an “Agency” for the purposes of the E-Government Act of 2002.

Maintain for 5 years in accordance with accordance with OSD 1807-02.

11. Sensitive Questions

The study includes close-ended questions about a range of behaviors, experiences, and attitudes that are likely to be sensitive to participants (e.g., sexual behavior and preferences, gender-related attitudes, and adverse childhood experiences). Additionally, some questions inquire about illegal behavior (e.g., alcohol use among underage Service members, sexual behavior that could constitute sexual assault). These questions are essential to the aim of the study to inform prevention efforts in these areas of Service member behavior. Given the sensitivity of these questions, participants will be asked to read an informed consent form prior to beginning the survey to make them aware that some survey questions may make them uncomfortable. All survey questions are voluntary and the survey is anonymous. At the end of the survey, participants will see a list of mental health and other DoD-supported resources available to them 24/7.

12. Respondent Burden and its Labor Costs

Part A: ESTIMATION OF RESPONDENT BURDEN

1. Collection Instrument(s)

[Anonymous Survey on Social Interactions and Sexual Behavior in the Military]

1. Number of Respondents: 3,000

2. Number of Responses Per Respondent: 1

3. Number of Total Annual Responses: 1

4. Response Time: 30 minutes

5. Respondent Burden Hours: 1,500 hours

2. Total Submission Burden

   1. Total Number of Respondents: 3,000

   2. Total Number of Annual Responses: 3,000

   3. Total Respondent Burden Hours: 1,500 hours

Part B: LABOR COST OF RESPONDENT BURDEN

1. Collection Instrument(s)

[Anonymous Survey on Social Interactions and Sexual Behavior in the Military]

1. Number of Total Annual Responses: 3,000

2. Response Time: 0.5 hours

3. Respondent Hourly Wage: $15.50

4. Labor Burden per Response: $7.75

5. Total Labor Burden: $23,250

2. Overall Labor Burden

   1. Total Number of Annual Responses: 3,000

   2. Total Labor Burden: $23,250

The Respondent hourly wage was determined by using the CAPE Full Cost of Manpower Tool (FCoM) [https://fcom.cape.osd.mil/]

13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs

There are no annualized costs to respondents other than the labor burden costs addressed in Section 12 of this document to complete this collection.

14. Cost to the Federal Government

Part A: LABOR COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

All processing of survey responses will be performed under a contract with the Institute for Defense Analyses. These costs are described in Part B (below). There are no other labor burden costs to the federal government.

1. Collection Instrument(s)

[Anonymous Survey on Social Interactions and Sexual Behavior in the Military]

1. Number of Total Annual Responses: 3,000

2. Processing Time per Response: .25 hours

3. Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses: $60

4. Cost to Process Each Response: $15

5. Total Cost to Process Responses: $45,000

2. Overall Labor Burden to the Federal Government

   1. Total Number of Annual Responses: 3,000

   2. Total Labor Burden: $45,000

Part B: OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS

All operational and maintenance costs described below are included in an existing contract with the Institute for Defense Analyses (BE-6-5328).

1. Cost Categories

   1. Equipment: $0

   2. Printing: $0

   3. Postage: $0

   4. Software Purchases: $0

   5. Licensing Costs: $2,880

   6. Other: $60,000 (participation incentives)

2. Total Operational and Maintenance Cost: $62,880

Part C: TOTAL COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The total cost of this information collection to the federal government is subsumed under an existing contract with the Institute for Defense Analyses (BE-6-5328) for $550,000. There are no costs to the federal government outside of this contract.

1. Total Labor Cost to the Federal Government: $45,000

2. Total Operational and Maintenance Costs: $62,880

3. Total Cost to the Federal Government: $107,880

15. Reasons for Change in Burden

This is a new collection with a new associated burden.

16. Publication of Results

The results of this information collection will be published as an IDA publication and will be released to DoD and potentially approved for broader public release, if approved by the sponsoring office and the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review. The goal for publishing results will be to inform DoD’s prevention community about potential risk and protective factors related to sexual assault perpetration, as well as best practices for collecting sensitive information about perpetration and related factors.

17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date

We are not seeking approval to omit the display of the expiration date of the OMB approval on the collection instrument.

18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”

We are not requesting any exemptions to the provisions stated in 5 CFR 1320.9.

1 Although IDA will only e-mail participants in the sampling frame (male, E1-E4, Active duty members) the eligibility screener is needed as service members could potentially share the survey link with others who are not in the sampling frame.