Impact of different privacy conditions and incentives on survey response rate, participant representativeness, and disclosure of sensitive information: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Anonymous survey methods appear to promote greater disclosure of sensitive or stigmatizing information compared to non-anonymous methods. Higher disclosure rates have traditionally been interpreted as being more accurate than lower rates. We examined the impact of 3 increasingly private mailed survey conditions-ranging from potentially identifiable to completely anonymous-on survey response and on respondents' representativeness of the underlying sampling frame, completeness in answering sensitive survey items, and disclosure of sensitive information.

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

Objective: 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.

Method: 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.

Functioning and psychiatric symptoms among military men and women exposed to sexual stressors.

Objective: The goal was to describe military men's and women's functioning and psychiatric symptoms according to their military sexual stressor exposure.

Method: A cross-sectional survey of 204 Army soldiers and 611 other active duty troops (487 men and 327 women) was performed.

Results: Forty-five percent of men and 80% of women reported at least one sexual stressor type (i.