Predictors of posttraumatic stress symptom severity and meaning made in treatment-seeking veterans.

Objective: Combat-exposed veterans risk encountering events that disrupt beliefs. To facilitate reduced discrepancy between prior beliefs and current trauma appraisals, veterans may engage in a process of meaning-making. Meaning-making can lead to positive outcomes, such as integrating the traumatic event into one's life narrative or adapting global meaning (meaning made) or elicit distress.

A qualitative analysis of meaning-making and mental health among OIF/OEF veterans.

Objective: After combat, veterans may experience mental health symptomology and attempt to make meaning from their experiences. The present study qualitatively examined the mental health effects of deployment and meaning-making among Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans.

Method: OIF/OEF veterans who were exposed to combat (N = 14) participated in semi-structured interviews to assess how their perspectives had changed post-deployment.