Psychological Effects of Military Combat on Veterans and Adolescents: Relationships between Risk Factors, Protective Factors, and Post-Development Psychological Morbidities

Since the events of 9/11, 2.6 million U.S. military service members have deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Exposure to combat experiences creates risks for development of psychosocial morbidities in service members. Research suggests that as many as 23% of service members deployed in support of OEF/OIF develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many combat risk factors are unavoidable for service members assigned to combat positions. To help in preventing adverse psychosocial symptoms in the face of inherent combat-related risks, protective factors have been explored. Post-deployment social support has been identified as a significant protective factor for combat-deployed service members. While several studies have examined the protective aspect of post-deployment social support, gaps remain regarding how post-deployment social support operates as a protective mechanism. This dissertation is a compilation of three manuscripts designed to explore risk and protective factors and their relationship for the development of post-combat psychological morbidities. The first manuscript is an integrative review focusing on the effect of parental combat-deployment on adolescent children. The second manuscript is a quantitative data analysis examining risk and resilience factors and their relationships with post-combat deployment depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The third manuscript is a concept analysis using evolutionary method to analyze the concept of the protective factor, post-deployment social support. All three manuscripts incorporate the same theoretical framework: ecological risk and protective theory (Bogenschneider, 1996)