Of the approximately 1 million Army Soldiers who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least one time between 2001 and 2007, 18.5% screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms post-deployment (Tanielian et al., 2008). Deployed Soldiers are at a high risk for unsuccessful reintegration as evidenced by the presence of mental health symptoms. Because of the lack of evidence demonstrating the relationships between resilience and other factors that may contribute to mental health outcomes in active duty Soldiers, the purpose of this study was to determine if relationships existed among these variables in Soldiers with a recent deployment history. An adaptation of Richardson’s Metatheory of resilience guided this study. A convenience sample of 350 active duty army junior enlisted and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) who were within 6 - 12 months from returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan and stationed at Fort Campbell were recruited to participate in this cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study. Seven self-report instruments were used to collect data: (1) Demographic Survey, (2) Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, (3) Deployment Risk and Resiliency Inventory (DRRI), (4) Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, (5) Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, (6) Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and (7) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Military Version. Data were entered into SPSS 18 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, and hierarchical linear regression. Results revealed many statistically significant correlations. Ten predictors resulted from this analysis and were placed into separate regression analyses with the three mental health outcomes. Each of the mental health outcome variables (anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms) accounted for a significant amount of variance in the other. In addition to PTSD and depression, post-deployment life events, deployment environment, and resilience accounted for the most significant amount of variance in anxiety symptoms. In addition to anxiety and PTSD symptoms, post-deployment life events accounted for the most significant amount of variance in depression symptoms. Deployment environment, post-deployment life events, and post-deployment support accounted for the most significant amount of variance in PTSD symptoms, in addition to anxiety and depression. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future nursing practice, education, and research opportunities are abundant. / text

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The relationship between alexithymia, PTSD symptoms, attachment, and depression was examined using archival data from a university-based trauma clinic. Participants were 62 women and 20 men, ages ranging from 17 to 59, with childhood histories of physical or sexual abuse. Measures included the Structured Clinical Interview on Childhood Sexual Abuse History (SI-SA), Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). As predicted, alexithymia, PTSD symptoms, and depression were negatively correlated with secure attachment and positively correlated with insecure attachment. Also as predicted, depression and insecure attachment styles containing negative models of the self (need for approval, discomfort with closeness) mediated the relationship between alexithymia and PTSD symptoms while styles involving positive models of the self (confidence, relationships as secondary) did not. Preoccupation with relationships was excluded from mediation analyses because alexithymia was not a significant predictor of this construct. Results suggest that the symptom profile of adult survivors of childhood abuse can be complex and may require interventions that target a broad range of symptoms and difficulties including alexithymia, attachment, and depression.

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Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) report increased levels of mental health problems, specifically symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are very common. They have often experienced multiple trauma events and additional stressors related to migration, acculturation and family separation. High-quality measurements of PTSD symptoms that are brief and easy to administer among URM are therefore needed. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-8) when used in a population of URM. Method: Confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency and test-retest agreement were analyzed using data from two previous studies; one Norwegian longitudinal study of URM mental health including 284 participants and 104 participants from a Swedish intervention study. Results: CRIES-8 in this population showed questionable levels of internal consistency and moderate test-retest agreement. The two-factor model of Intrusion and Avoidance was confirmed to have god model fit in this study, while the one-factor model of PTSD had poor model fit. Three items related to Avoidance (2,5 & 8) were found to have a large proportion of error in the one factor model. Conclusion: When CRIES-8 are used in studies of PTSD among URM the reliability and validity seems lower than previously found in other contexts. Especially the items related to avoidance seem potentially problematic in this context. It is recommended that researchers and clinicians are cautious when interpreting CRIES-8 scores when used with URM.

<p dir="ltr">Military families are a unique context as they experience separation from the service member who is away from the family for a considerable duration of time for a job that puts them at risk of serious injury or death. Service members returning from deployments may display a variety of mental health difficulties including post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when they have combat experiences. Applying a family systems framework, this thesis examined the associations between both service members’ and significant others’ PTSD symptoms, their ineffective arguing, and their reports of their children’s externalizing behaviors across three time points during reintegration, or the stage in the deployment cycle when the service member returns to the family. The study tested hypotheses that these would decline over time, and that initial levels and the rate of change in ineffective arguing would mediate the effect of parental PTSD at Time 1 on children’s externalizing behaviors at Time 3. Using data from service members and significant others in 71 families (142 individuals), I estimated multilevel models using both mixed and the structural equation frameworks. I found that parental PTSD and ineffective arguing were stable across reintegration, with considerable inter-individual variation in these at baseline. There was a decrease in children’s externalizing behaviors across time. There were also significant differences in parents’ rating of children’s externalizing behaviors. I did not find evidence for mediation but did find an association between parental PTSD and baseline levels of ineffective arguing. Results suggest that while parental stress is linked with the couple’s functioning, there may be protective factors within families that act as sources of resilience for the children.</p><p><br></p>

Prior research has established that a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases the risk of suicide behavior. Few studies have examined the role of specific PTSD symptom clusters and suicide attempts. The current study is among a handful of studies that have examined the association between the presence of PTSD symptom clusters and suicide attempts among Veterans with PTSD and/or TBI. The study utilized archival data from a sample of 137 Veterans receiving mental health treatment at the Denver Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that PTSD symptom clusters were not associated with an increased risk for suicide behavior among individuals with and without a history of TBI. Results suggest that looking at the presence of PTSD symptoms is not sufficient to account for the risk of suicide behavior. Clinical and research implications on the need to examine the role of PTSD symptom severity and suicide behavior are discussed.

Background: This study examined the bidirectional nature of mother-infant positive and negative emotional displays during social interactions across multiple tasks among postpartum women accounting for childhood maltreatment severity. Additionally, effects of maternal postpartum psychopathology on maternal affect and effects of task and emotional valence on dyadic emotional displays were evaluated. Sampling and Methods: A total of 192 mother-infant dyads (51% male infants) were videotaped during free play and the Still-Face paradigm at 6 months postpartum. Mothers reported on trauma history and postpartum depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Reliable, masked coders scored maternal and infant positive and negative affect from the videotaped interactions. Results: Three path models evaluated whether dyadic affective displays were primarily mother driven, infant driven, or bidirectional in nature, adjusting for mothers' maltreatment severity and postpartum psychopathology. The bidirectional model had the best fit. Child maltreatment severity predicted depression and PTSD symptoms, and maternal symptoms predicted affective displays (both positive and negative), but the pattern differed for depressive symptoms compared to PTSD symptoms. Emotional valence and task altered the nature of bidirectional affective displays. Conclusions: The results add to our understanding of dyadic affective exchanges in the context of maternal risk (childhood maltreatment history, postpartum symptoms of depression and PTSD). Findings highlight postpartum depression symptoms as one mechanism of risk transmission from maternal maltreatment history to impacted parent-child interactions. Limitations include reliance on self-reported psychological symptoms and that the sample size prohibited testing of moderation analyses. Developmental and clinical implications are discussed.