Workplace social support in job satisfaction among veterans with posttraumatic stress symptoms: A preliminary correlational study.

For Veterans managing PTSD symptoms, returning to vocational functioning is often challenging; identifying modifiable variables that can contribute to positive vocational adjustment is critical to improved vocational rehabilitation services. Workplace social support has proven to be important in vocational adjustment in both general population and vocational rehabilitation samples, but this area of inquiry has received little attention among Veterans with PTSD symptoms. In this small correlational study, employed Veterans (N = 63) presenting for outpatient PTSD treatment at a VA Health Care System completed surveys assessing demographic variables, PTSD symptoms, workplace social support, and job satisfaction.

The predictive validity of the PTSD Checklist in a nonclinical sample of combat-exposed National Guard troops.

After returning from an extended combat deployment to Iraq, 348 National Guard soldiers were administered the PTSD Checklist (PCL-M), and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) followed, on average, 3 months later by structured diagnostic interviews including the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). There were 6.

Mental health diagnosis and occupational functioning in National Guard/Reserve veterans returning from Iraq.

Occupational functioning represents both an important outcome for military service members returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom and a predictor for long-term mental health functioning. We investigated the role of mental health diagnoses, determined by structured clinical interviews, on occupational functioning in a group of 262 National Guard/Reserve service members within 1 year of returning from a 16-month OIF combat deployment. We assessed occupational functioning at the time of diagnostic interviews and 1 year later.

The structure of PTSD among two cohorts of returning soldiers: before, during, and following deployment to Iraq.

Evidence suggests either a four-factor emotional numbing or dysphoria model likely reflects the underlying structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Questions remain as to which of these structures best represents PTSD, how the structure changes with time, the applicability of models to returning veterans, and the validity of the symptom clusters. The present study addresses these questions among two longitudinal samples of National Guard soldiers assessed prior to, during, and following a combat deployment to Iraq.

Factor structure and concurrent validity of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form among veterans from the Iraq War.

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory is a frequently used self-report measure of posttraumatic growth. It was adapted recently to a short form with preliminary evidence in support of its psychometric properties. The current survey study replicates evidence for the short form's factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and concurrent validity among a sample of 327 National Guard soldiers deployed in support of military operations in Iraq, a population distinct from the original scale-development sample of undergraduates.

Assessing the psychometric properties of the World Assumptions Scale.

The notion that traumatic events shatter survivors' fundamental assumptions about the world has been accepted as a truism in the trauma literature, although tests of this hypothesis provide a somewhat mixed picture. Because this research has relied heavily on the World Assumptions Scale (WAS), it is unclear whether these inconsistent results are due to problems with assumptive world theory, improper tests of the theory, or problems with the WAS. Data were gathered from 742 undergraduate students at four universities to assess the psychometric properties of the WAS.

Assessing the validity of self-reported stress-related growth.

The purpose of these studies was to assess the validity of self-reported stress-related growth (SRG). In Study 1, individuals with breast cancer (n = 70) generally did not report greater well-being than a matched comparison group (n = 70). In Study 2, there were no significant differences in well-being between undergraduate students who said that something positive had come out of their worst stressor (n = 34) and those who reported no positives (n = 34).