The association of resilience on psychiatric, substance use, and physical health outcomes in combat trauma-exposed military service members and veterans

Abstract

Objective : Although Combat exposure is associated with a range of psychiatric outcomes, many veterans do not develop psychopathology. Resilience is a multifaceted construct associated with reduced risk of distress and psychopathology; however, few studies have examined the relationship of resilience with a broader spectrum of health outcomes following combat exposure. It also remains important to determine the association of resilience above and beyond other documented risk and protective factors. Method : In a sample of combat-exposed veterans (N = 1,046) deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, we examined a quantitative method for exploring relative psychological resilience (discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience; DBPR) and tested the hypothesis that resilience would be associated with reduced risk for psychiatric diagnosis count, substance use, and physical health outcomes, above and beyond other known correlates (e.g. combat exposure, social support). Results : In the final model, results suggested an inverse association of discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience with current psychiatric diagnosis count ( β = −0.57, p < .001), alcohol use ( β = −0.16, p < .001), drug use ( β = −0.13, p < .001), and physical health concerns ( β = −0.42, p < .001) after accounting for other relevant risk and protective factors. Conclusions : Results extend the nomological net of this quantitative resilience construct to include other relevant health outcomes, and demonstrate that resilience may have more of a buffering relationship with psychiatric and physical health concerns compared to substance use outcomes.

Ecological Momentary Mood, Resilience, and Mental Health Status as Predictors of Quality of Life Among Young Adults Under Stress: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

“…Specifically, while some studies report no differences in the degree of self-reported adversities in females compared to their male counterparts (5,7,17), others find higher levels of self-reported adversities among newly-recruited females soldiers (23)(24)(25). These excessive mental challenges can lead to severe drops in the various domains of QoL in female compared to male soldiers (26,27), as was indeed found in a few recent studies (28,29).…”

Psychological resilience: an update on definitions, a critical appraisal, and research recommendations

“…In terms of measurement, panellists highlighted the need to focus efforts on improving assessment in resilience research. For example, factor analytic studies of adapted versions of some resilience measures have not been shown to have good reliability and validity cross-culturally (Jorgensen & Seedat, 2008), and other work suggests that self-rated resilience does not demonstrate concordance with functional ascertainment (Sheerin et al, 2019;Nishimi et al, 2020). This becomes particularly problematic when considering interpreting the results of prior RCTs (see for example Chmitorz et al, 2018).…”

A national survey of self-reported mental health of Veterans pursuing post-secondary education in Canada

“…28,29 This could translate into being less stressed and overwhelmed by the functional demands of school. While reports have indicated that post-deployment resiliency is predictive of adaptive psychosocial functioning, 28,30 the authors were unable to find published research that specifically examined differences in resiliency among Veterans as a function of hazardous duty experience. As such, this proposed explanation remains purely speculative.…”