Development and Validation of a Tool to Assess Military Veterans' Status, Functioning, and Satisfaction with Key Aspects of their Lives

Abstract

Background: We developed and validated the Well-Being Inventory (WBI) to address the need for a tool that can provide a comprehensive assessment of key aspects of military veterans' lives. This multidimensional instrument assesses status, functioning, and satisfaction with regard to vocation, finances, health, and social relationships. Methods: Two large multi-phase studies (Study 1 Ns = 301, 286; Study 2 Ns = 9,566, 7,342) were conducted to develop and validate this tool among military veterans. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses supported the proposed factor structure, with separate factors observed for all scales except the health functioning scale, which was best represented as three factors rather than a single factor. Cronbach's alphas were satisfactory, with an average alpha of 0.86. Most WBI measures discriminated among individuals with and without mental health conditions and demonstrated expected declines among those with a new mental health condition. Conclusions: This study provides initial evidence for the reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of the WBI. This tool can be used to provide insight into areas in which military veterans would benefit from additional support and inform efforts to promote the well-being of this population. Given its broad focus, it may also prove useful with other civilian populations.

Moral Injury and Social Well‐Being: A Growth Curve Analysis

“…At each assessment point, participants responded to four items from the WBI that were used to assess general satisfaction with their community (e.g., “how satisfied have you been with: your sense of belonging in your community”) and social relationships (e.g., “how satisfied have you been with your relationships with friends;” Vogt et al., 2019). Items were rated on a 5‐point scale ranging from 1 ( very dissatisfied ) to 5 ( very satisfied ), and a total score was calculated by averaging the item scores.…”

“…Items were rated on a dichotomous scale (0 = “no,” 1 = “yes”), and a total score was calculated by summing the items. These items are part of the broad, multifaceted Well‐Being Inventory (WBI), which was developed for the TVMI study (Vogt et al., 2019). Evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of this measure is available, and it has been found to discriminate between groups expected to differ on this construct (i.e., participants with and without mental health conditions; Vogt et al., 2019).…”

“…Items were rated on a 5‐point scale ranging from 1 ( very dissatisfied ) to 5 ( very satisfied ), and a total score was calculated by averaging the item scores. As with the broader WBI social functioning scale, the social satisfaction items have evidenced convergent and discriminant validity, discriminative validity, and sensitivity to change (Vogt et al., 2019). In the present sample, the internal consistency over the four waves of data collection was high, Cronbach's αs = .84–.87, with low skewness (range: −.68 to −.73) and kurtosis (range: .08 to .17).…”

“…Understanding the association between MI and social support and connectedness is important both theoretically and practically. However, SWB is a multidimensional construct (Vogt et al., 2019) that may change over time; therefore, cross‐sectional MI studies focused mainly on one aspect of SWB have limited utility.…”

“…The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI; Vogt et al., 2018), a longitudinal study involving the transition to civilian life among U.S. veterans who served after the September 11, 2001 (9/11), terrorist attacks, utilized a multidimensional model of veterans’ well‐being that focused on three dimensions: status, functioning, and satisfaction. With respect to SWB, these dimensions were defined as veterans’ involvement in social activities, level of social functioning, and degree of social satisfaction (Vogt et al., 2019). In addition, the TVMI study assessed veterans’ perceptions of available social support.…”