The combined stress of family life, work, and war in Air Force men and women: A test of conservation of resources theory (original) (raw)
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Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2011
Longitudinal data from a stratified representative sample of U.S. Air Force personnel (N ϭ 1009) deployed to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations were analyzed in this study. Using structural equation models, we examined the effects of war exposure on traumatic experiences, Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms, resource loss, and on subsequent functioning, perceived health, and on job and organizationally relevant outcomes. The job and organizational outcomes included job burnout, job involvement, job strain, job satisfaction, work-family conflict, organizational commitment, deployment readiness, and intention to reenlist. We found that deployment to the theater of the war increased risk of exposure to trauma, which in turn, predicted elevated PTS symptoms and resource loss. PTS symptoms predicted later loss of resources and deterioration in perceived health and functioning. In turn, resource loss predicted negative job and organizational outcomes. Exposure to trauma fully mediated the effects of deployment to the theater of war on PTS symptoms and resource loss and had additional significant indirect effects on several job and organizational relevant outcomes. For returning veterans, deployment to the theater of war, exposure to trauma, PTS symptoms, and resource loss represents a "cascading" chain of events that over time results in a decline of health and functioning as well as in adverse job and organizationally relevant outcomes that may affect organizational effectiveness.
War-Related Stress: Addressing the Stress of War and Other Traumatic Events
American Psychologist, 1991
A task force on war-related stress was convened to develop strategies for prevention and treatment of psychological, psychosocial, and psychosomatic disorders associated with the Persian Gulf War and other extreme stressors facing communities in general. The task force focused on the return home, reunion, and reintegration of service personnel with their families and work. Although the Persian Gulf War was won with relative ease, negative psychological sequelae may develop in some individuals because of the stress of war, family disruption, financial difficulty, and changes in family routines. Typical stress reactions and modes of coping that are usually unsuccessful or destructive were outlined, and suggestions were made for monitoring these. In addition, guidelines for successful coping were developed. Special attention was given to children's reactions and needs. Recommendations were made for outreach and intervention on the policy, systems (e.g., schools, businesses, governmental agencies), family, and individual levels.
War Experiences Daily Stressors and Mental Health
This paper seeks to bridge the divisive split between advocates of trauma-focused and psychosocial approaches to understanding and addressing mental health needs in conflict and post-conflict settings by emphasizing the role that daily stressors play in mediating direct war exposure and mental health outcomes. The authors argue that trauma-focused advocates tend to overemphasize the impact of direct war exposure on mental health, and fail to consider the contribution of stressful social and material conditions (daily stressors). Drawing on the findings of recent studies that have examined the relationship of both war exposure and daily stressors to mental health status, a model is proposed in which daily stressors partially mediate the relationship of war exposure to mental health. Based on that model, and on the growing body of research that supports it, an integrative, sequenced approach to intervention is proposed in which daily stressors are first addressed, and specialized interventions are then provided for individuals whose distress does not abate with the repair of the social ecology.
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2016
See article by Bergman et al I n this month's Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Bergman et al 1 report on the long-term mental health of military veterans matched with nonveterans with a focus on the impact of the length of the veterans' military service. Using data from the Scottish Veterans Health Study, some 57,000 veterans and 173,000 nonveterans were matched. The authors report that military service was correlated with increased mental health problems among veterans in general and among "early service leavers" in particular. 1 Matching of the exact same 2 groups had been used in a previous study on myocardial infarction, 2 which demonstrates that the methodology is sound and flexible and could be applied to a variety of medical issues. Reviewing the references to the article reveals that sources included many British and American studies, which appeared in both British and American journals. This might arguably suggest that the findings would be generalizable to US Armed Forces, who are also North Atlantic Treaty Organization members and use a common military doctrine with similar training and weapons. But the issue of service in wartime, particularly service in areas of active combat, is not addressed in this article. For countries that have been at war and actively engaged in combat operations for the past 14 years, 3,4 the quantitative effects on mental health are a critically important issue. It is made even more important as many of the troops are sent for repeated combat deployments in what are euphemistically referred to as the "sandboxes" of Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada have engaged in combat operations in both of these areas as allies. The psychological trauma of war, now called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has quite likely been recognized for millennia. In the US Civil War (1861-1865), it was called "soldier's heart. " 5 Then, in World War I and early in World War II, it became "shell shock" or "war neurosis. " 6,7 Later in World War II, the appellation evolved to "battle fatigue" or "combat stress. " 8 But it was essentially the same disorder and led to large numbers of casualties.
Combat is arguably the most mentally, physically and emotionally demanding enterprise that a Soldier engages in. Combat is sudden, intense, and life-threatening. A Soldier in combat encounters numerous traumatic events to include, among others, killing an enemy combatant, knowing someone seriously injured or killed or handling or uncovering human remains. All of these events can have deleterious effects on the mental health and emotional well-being of the Soldier. Yet, there are things that Soldiers, leaders and the Army can do to mediate or attenuate the impact that the stressors of combat and deployment produce. In this presentation we will provide an overview of our three intervention strategies involving
Military Hardiness as a Buffer of Psychological Health on Return from Deployment
Military Medicine, 2006
Military hardiness, the context-specific adaptation of psychological hardiness, is explored as it relates to military occupational stressors. It was hypothesized that military hardiness would moderate the effects of deployment stressors on soldier health. In a survey study of 629 U.S. soldiers, deployment stressors, military hardiness, and psychological and physical health were assessed during a peacekeeping deployment. Health was measured again after deployment. Results of moderated regression analyses partially supported the hypotheses; military hardiness moderated the impact of deployment stressors on depression after deployment, after controlling for depression during deployment. Implications for training military hardiness and applications to other occupational settings are discussed.