Types of COVID-19 Disaster Work and Psychological Responses in National Guard Service Members.

Introduction: The National Guard (NG) served as a critical component of the U.S. response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Overview and Design of the .

Objective: This report presents an overview of the objectives, design, and analytic strategy of the , an investigation of factors associated with child maltreatment in active duty military families.

Method: The study uses a case-control retrospective research design and discrete-time survival methodology to examine service member demographic characteristics, family characteristics, military-related characteristics, and military family life events associated with child maltreatment incidents that meet the Department of Defense definition of child abuse or neglect. The sample includes all active duty families with a first occurrence of child maltreatment anytime between Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 and FY 2018 (  = 28,684), and a representative sample of control families with children under age of 18 during the same period (  = 589,417).

National Guard Deployment in Support of COVID-19: Psychological and Behavioral Health.

Introduction: The National Guard (NG) served as a critical component of the USA's response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, while concurrently managing their personal responses to the pandemic. Determining whether the activation of NG service members in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a greater psychological strain can identify NG's needs for mental health support.

Materials And Methods: We surveyed 3993 NG unit (NGU) service members (75% Army NG, 79% enlisted, 52% 30-49 years old, and 81% males) during the COVID-19 pandemic, with surveys administered between August and November 2020.

COVID-19 Pandemic Responses among National Guard Service Members: Stressors, Coping Strategies, Sleep Difficultiesand Substance Use.

The National Guard (NG) served as a critical component of the US COVID-19 response while concurrently managing personal COVID-19 responses. Understanding pandemic-related concerns, sleep difficulties, increased substance use, and stress management strategies can promote readiness for subsequent disasters. We surveyed 3221 NG service members (75% Army; 79% enlisted; 52% 30-49 years; 81% male) during COVID-19 (August-November 2020).

Responding to Repeated Disasters: Time to Recovery in Public Health Workers.

Objective: In times of repeated disaster events, including natural disasters and pandemics, public health workers must recover rapidly to respond to subsequent events. Understanding predictors of time to recovery and developing predictive models of time to recovery can aid planning and management.

Methods: We examined 681 public health workers (21-72 y, M(standard deviation [SD]) = 48.

The effect of war injury and combat deployment on military wives' mental health symptoms.

Background: Although much has been learned about the physical and psychological impacts of deployment and combat injury on military service members, less is known about the effects of these experiences on military spouses.

Methods: The present study examined self-reported mental health symptoms (using the Brief Symptom Inventory [BSI]-18 and the posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] Checklist [PCL-C]) in wives of service members who were combat-injured (CI; n = 60); noninjured with cumulative deployment longer than 11 months (NI-High; n = 51); and noninjured with cumulativel deployment less than 11 months (NI-Low; n = 53).

Results: 36.

Brain Environment Interactions: Stress, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and the Need for a Postmortem Brain Collection.

Stress, especially the extreme stress of traumatic events, can alter both neurobiology and behavior. Such extreme environmental situations provide a useful model for understanding environmental influences on human biology and behavior. This paper will review some of the evidence of brain alterations that occur with exposure to environmental stress.

Mental Health, Ill-Defined Conditions, and Health Care Utilization Following Bereavement: A Prospective Case-Control Study.

Background: Bereavement has been associated with increases in immune/inflammatory and neuroendocrine reactions, cardiovascular events, nonspecific physical symptoms, mental conditions, and health care utilization. However, little is known about bereavement effects in younger samples, multiple health effects within samples, or prebereavement to postbereavement health changes.

Objective: To determine the effect of bereavement on the prevalence of medical conditions and utilization of health care.

Daily variation in sleep characteristics in individuals with and without post traumatic stress disorder.

Background: Sleep disturbances are common in individuals with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about how daily variation in sleep characteristics is related to PTSD. This study examined the night-to-night and weekday versus weekend variation in sleep duration, sleep quality, trouble falling asleep, and difficulty staying asleep in individuals with and without PTSD.