Women’s veteran identity and utilization of VA health services.

Abstract

Women have participated in the United States military since its founding. However, until the mid-20th century, there had been limited recognition of women as official members of the military, and women remain a statistical minority within military and veteran populations. It is therefore important to better understand women's veteran identity (which we define here as one's self-concept as derived from their veteran status) and associated implications for service use and experiences in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care setting. The present research examined the centrality of, and positive regard for, women's veteran identity among 407 female veterans deployed in support of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Data were collected via a mailed national survey. Positive regard for veteran identity, but not veteran identity centrality,was positively associated with participants' age and length of time spent in the military. Results also showed that the centrality of women's veteran identity was positively related to their choice to use VA for health care and their feelings of belonging within VA, and that veteran identity centrality and positive regard for veteran identity are differentially associated with participants' military experiences (e.g., combat exposure, deployment sexual harassment) and mental health symptomatology (e.g., depression).

Exploring the association of care fragmentation and patient ratings of care quality: A mediation analysis of women Veterans’ experience with VA care

“…Previous work has shown that WVs’ discomfort in a male‐dominated environment could lead to nonuse of services, and feeling unwelcome at VA was one of the reasons reported by WVs who had stopped using VA services . Other studies have identified Veteran identity and the perceived fit within VA as influential on the use of VA for women Veterans . More research is needed to understand how to best leverage the different facets of WV identity, as a Veteran and as a woman, to enhance their sense of belonging within VA health care system, and improve their care experience.…”

“…19 Other studies have identified Veteran identity and the perceived fit within VA as influential on the use of VA for women Veterans. 40 More research is needed to understand how to best leverage the different facets of WV identity, as a Veteran and as a woman, to enhance their sense of belonging within VA health care system, and improve their care experience.…”

Perceptions of Legal Legitimacy among University Students with and without Military Service

“…Moreover, the current literature on veteran identity is quite limited (Gade and Wilkins, 2013). Nonetheless, there are a small number of studies on how identification as a veteran can affect preferences for and utilization of medical services (Di Leone,Wang, Kressin, & Vogt, 2016;Locatelli, Turcois, & LaVela, 2014;Matthias et al, 2016). Yet the veteran identity construct remains understudied and requires further articulation and investigation.…”

Supporting the well-being of student veterans and service members: Contextual factors and self-determination

“…Di Leone, Wang, Kressin, and Vogt (2016) conceptualized veteran identity as having two dimensions: centrality and positive regard. Centrality refers to how salient a person's veteran status is to their self-concept, whereas positive regard refers to the affective valence a person holds toward their veteran status.…”

“…Positive regard for veteran identity was measured using the Positive Regard for Veteran Identity Scale (PRVIS; Di Leone et al, 2016). The original PRVIS had three items and used a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with a higher score indicating more positive feelings toward the participant's identity as a veteran.…”