The association of resilience on psychiatric, substance use, and physical health outcomes in combat trauma-exposed military service members and veterans.
Abstract
Objective: Although Combat exposure is associated with a range of psychiatric outcomes,
many veterans do not develop psychopathology. Resilience is a multifaceted construct
associated with reduced risk of distress and psychopathology; however, few studies
have examined the relationship of resilience with a broader spectrum of health outcomes
following combat exposure. It also remains important to determine the association
of resilience above and beyond other documented risk and protective factors. Method:
In a sample of combat-exposed veterans (N = 1,046) deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,
we examined a quantitative method for exploring relative psychological resilience
(discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience; DBPR) and tested the hypothesis that resilience
would be associated with reduced risk for psychiatric diagnosis count, substance use,
and physical health outcomes, above and beyond other known correlates (e.g. combat
exposure, social support). Results: In the final model, results suggested an inverse
association of discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience with current psychiatric diagnosis
count (β = -0.57, p < .001), alcohol use (β = -0.16, p < .001), drug use (β = -0.13,
p < .001), and physical health concerns (β = -0.42, p < .001) after accounting for
other relevant risk and protective factors. Conclusions: Results extend the nomological
net of this quantitative resilience construct to include other relevant health outcomes,
and demonstrate that resilience may have more of a buffering relationship with psychiatric
and physical health concerns compared to substance use outcomes.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Psychological resiliencecombat trauma
physical health
substance use
veterans
• Examined the association of resilience with a spectrum of health outcomes following combat.• Resilience had an independent effect on psychiatric diagnosis, alcohol and drug use, and physical health complaints over other important factors, such as social support.• It was more strongly associated with psychiatric and physical health outcomes as compared to substance use.• The impact of psychological resilience on development/perception of health-related complaints is important to consider regarding broad outcomes following trauma.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19121Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1080/20008198.2019.1625700Publication Info
Sheerin, Christina M; Amstadter, Ananda B; Kurtz, Erin D; Bountress, Kaitlin E; Stratton,
Kelcey J; McDonald, Scott D; & Mid-Atlantic Va Mirecc Workgroup (2019). The association of resilience on psychiatric, substance use, and physical health outcomes
in combat trauma-exposed military service members and veterans. European journal of psychotraumatology, 10(1). pp. 1625700. 10.1080/20008198.2019.1625700. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19121.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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