Combat Exposure and Peritraumatic Factors Predicting PTSD among Military Personnel Fighting Insurgency in Nigeria

Abstract

Previous studies indicate that posttraumatic stress disorder is one of the major mental health challenges that affect military personnel who have experienced combat situations. However, there is still paucity of research on the factors that predict PTSD in Nigerian military setting despite increasing rate of Boko-Haram exposure. This study therefore examined the predictive influence of peritraumatic factors (combat exposure, number of deployments, duration of deployments and substance use) among Nigerian military personnel exposed to Boko-Haram insurgency in North-eastern Nigeria. Data were collected using standardized questionnaires on a sample of 715 participants. Two hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression, and results revealed a significant positive relationship between combat exposure (r= .36; p<.05), substance use coping (r= .14; p<.01) and PTSD. However, number (r= .07; p>.05) and duration of deployments (r= .04; p>.05) were found to have no significant relationship with PTSD. Additional findings indicated that combat exposure (β= .32, t= 9.10; p<.05) and using substance to cope with the experience of combat (β= -.11, t= -3.14; p<.05) independently and jointly [R 2 = .36, F(4,707)= 15.13, P<.05] predicted PTSD, while the influence of duration and multiple deployments were statistically insignificant. Findings imply that Nigerian military personnel who experience combat and resort to substance use to cope stand a higher risk of developing PTSD. Thus, Military authority should give adequate attention on training to restrain its personnel from substance use coping during stressful encounters to prevent the development of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Impact of Life Event Stress among Military Personnel Fighting Boko-Haram Insurgency in North Eastern Nigeria: Any Relationship with Psychological Skills?

“…The subscales have been reported to have a high degree of intercorrelation (r = .87) (Nwoga, Audu, & Obembe, 2016). Similarly, a high level of internal consistency (Intrusion:.87-.94, Avoidance: 84 -.87, Hyperarousal: = .79-.91) has been reported by previous studies (Cuijpers et al, 2020;Abel et al, 2018;Filion, Munroe-Chandler, & Loughead, 2021;Meggs & Mark, 2019;Vrijkotte et al, 2016;Clare et al, 2017;Elliot, 1999;Nicholls, 1984;Adeoya, Adeleye, & Egawa, 2021;Tashman, Simpson, & Cremades, 2018;Weiss & Marmar, 1997;Creamer et al, 2013). The authors reported a test-retest reliability coefficient of .89 to .94 after a 6-month interval (Weiss & Marmar, 1997).…”

“…The results revealed a significant positive relationship between combat exposure, substance use coping, and PTSD. Similarly, Abel et al (2018) investigated the influence of combat exposure on PTSD among military combatants in North Eastern Nigeria using 249 purposely drawn men and officers of the Nigerian Army on operation. They found that combat exposure was significant for avoidance symptoms and re-experiencing symptoms.…”

“…The quest by behavioural scientists to identify variables that will relate to adaptive coping and hardiness has led to the identification of sports-related psychological skills. According to Abel et al (2018) psychological skills is the intentional use of a well-structured sequence of specified thoughts in order to regulate behaviour in any context. Psychological skills are widely used in sports to regulate athletes' behaviour to meet sports demands by addressing attention, motivation, volition, arousal regulation, perceptual, cognitive functions, and motor control (Meggs & Mark, 2019).…”

Can subjective perceptions of trauma differentiate between ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD? A cross-cultural comparison of three African countries.

“…Furthermore, the African countries that were selected vary in levels and types of trauma exposure distribution. For example, traumatic outcome of a high level of individuals who suffer from HIV (Adewuya et al, 2009), ethnoreligious conflicts (Obilom & Thacher, 2008), and war-related traumas are observed in Nigeria (Abel et al, 2018), whereas violence against women is predominantly observed in Ghana (Issahaku, 2015). Our results show that the cutoff levels are different among the different African countries and from previous findings from Israel.…”

Post-traumatic stress disorder and associated factors among inpatients at Eastern Command Referral Hospital in Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia

“…Studies on the magnitude of PTSD in Sub-Saharan Africa have shown estimates ranging from 0% to 74% at national and regional levels, with a combined magnitude of 30% in war-affected areas ( 23 ). In Nigeria, recent research indicates that three out of 10 military combatants are at risk of developing PTSD ( 24 ).…”