Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., 1996-97. / Title from title screen (viewed Nov. 7, 2003). "January 1999." Includes bibliographical references.

<p> The research on military families during deployments, especially in recent years, has been prolific but also, at times, contradictory. Some studies have reported increased risk while others have reported resilience. Possible reasons for the risk and resilience controversy, as well as the understudied population of overseas military families, were the subject of this study. Currently, there is no research on the experience of deployment for military families who are stationed in foreign countries. The exact number of family members is unknown; however, just under 200,000 military members serve overseas. The first research question examined the effect of duty station (continental United States, English-speaking host nation, and non-English speaking host nation) on a family member&rsquo;s ability to cope. The second research question examined the relationship of acculturation with coping. The third research question examined the relationship of perceived social support with coping. It was hypothesized that families who were stationed overseas would be less able to cope, and that those who lived in non-English speaking host nations would experience even greater difficulty coping. Acculturation and perceived social support were identified as possible mediating factors for coping. Coping was measured using Carver&rsquo;s COPE Inventory (2013) and limited to only three of the 15 subscales: positive reinterpretation and growth, use of instrumental social support, and use of emotional social support. This study used the contextual model of family stress as a theoretical framework for understanding the interplay of deployment, duty station, acculturation, and perceived social support and how they resulted in risk or resilience as measured by coping. This study was designed as descriptive survey research with convenience sampling as the main recruitment method. An electronic survey was created and data from 173 adult military family members, mostly female spouses, were used to conduct nonparametric hypotheses testing. Results from the Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks showed a non-significant effect of duty station on coping. Results from Spearman&rsquo;s rank correlation coefficient revealed a weak association among acculturation and the subscales of coping, but a moderate, positive association between coping and perceived social support. The study was limited by the small sample size and lack of homogeneity among groups. Further research on this population is supported by the lack of literature and suggestions for future studies are presented.</p><p>

<p> The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reported that about 660,000 Military Veteran Students (MVSs) were enrolled in undergraduate programs in 2009, making up about 3% of the student population. Despite the significant number of MVSs entering into college, instructional communication scholars have yet to study how military veterans experience classroom instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of teacher accommodative and non-accommodative behaviors on MVSs' (<i> N</i> = 162) perceptions of learning. Grounded in the Communication Accommodation Theory, this study supports an instructional model that predicts learner empowerment and affective learning via accommodative behaviors, as operationalized as teacher immediacy and teacher clarity, and non-accommodative behaviors, as operationalized as teacher aggressiveness. After controlling for military identity and teacher congruency, only teacher clarity and teacher congruency contribute significantly to both learner empowerment and affective learning. MVSs seem to feel more empowered and have higher affect toward the class if the teacher is clear and genuine, regardless of perceptions of teacher immediacy and aggressiveness. This dissertation concludes with practical advice for instructors and advisors who work with MVSs, as well as limitations of the study and directions for future research.</p>

<p> The influx of females into the military in recent years has drawn increasing attention to the impact of extended and often repeated deployments on parent-child attachment. The challenges associated with deployment may be particularly taxing on young children due to their emotional and cognitive immaturity, lack of coping skills and dependence on their caregivers for daily functioning. While children&rsquo;s reaction to parental deployment varies by age, the longer and more frequently a parent is deployed, the greater the psychological, health and behavioral risk for the child. These adjustments can be complicated when mothers suffer psychological distress related to combat exposure, military sexual trauma, increasing their risk of suffering from symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. These adjustment and mental health issues, in combination with prolonged separation, will all complicate the reestablishment of a secure attachment bond with their children.</p><p> This manual seeks to provide clinicians with a comprehensive overview of the unique deployment-related stressors of female veterans, and their impact on mental health and reintegration. With a focus on the parent-child relationship, this manual will utilize attachment theory as the foundation to understand how the change, disruption, stress and loss experienced during deployment affects young children and their mothers. Moreover, this manual discusses mindfulness-based treatment interventions and practical tools to guide clinicians in aiding female veterans to prepare their children for deployment, cope with deployment, and reestablish the attachment bond upon returning home. </p>

<p> This phenomenological study sought to understand the life experience of retired Flag/General Officers who transitioned from highly visible and accomplished careers in the US Military into executive leadership roles in other sectors. Participant selection was limited to those executive military leaders with a minimum of three years (for those currently employed) or five years (for those fully retired) of executive level leadership experience in the civilian sector and was focused on bringing clarity to the challenges they faced. Specifically, it explored how their leadership style and professional identity may have been influenced by the change in culture and mission and, most importantly, what they learned about themselves as a result of the lived experience. </p><p> Twelve participants were purposefully selected across all branches of the US military and a semi-structured protocol was utilized in accordance with Barnard's (1988) recommendation. Individual profiles were developed and interview data was analyzed using Moustakas' (1994) phenomenological analysis method. Through phenomenological reduction, five themes and seventeen sub-themes emerged.</p><p> The leadership transition experience of the participants was captured by crafting structural and textural descriptions, by integrating structural-textural descriptions, and by synthesizing the emergent meanings and essences of the phenomenon as a whole.</p><p> This study offers the following five conclusions: </p><p> 1. The experience of career transition is expressed in terms of boundaryless opportunity and professional transformation </p><p> 2. The ability to adapt to a new organizational culture is dependent upon ones openness to accept and embrace change </p><p> 3. Success is rooted in a commitment to ones core leadership principles and an intuitive willingness to flex ones leadership style as needed </p><p> 4. Professional identities adjust in response to new environments, new networks of relationships, and new role expectations </p><p> 5. Professional transformation is a process of self-discovery and self-renewal </p><p> The conclusions that emerged from the findings of this study illuminate the meaning and significance of the career transition experience of the twelve participants and contribute to the career transition literature.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2008. / Adviser: Mustapha Mouloua. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98).

<p> Military leaders play central roles in responding to sexual assault in the military social ecology, yet their impacts on victims&rsquo; post-assault and reporting experiences remain understudied. Using standpoint epistemology and a military-specific social ecological approach, this two-stage project investigated how military leaders impacted survivors&rsquo; post-assault and reporting experiences, as well as their experiences with military peers, community resources, and justice and separation processes. Data were gathered through an initial focus group with eight subject matter experts in advocacy, legal work, and policy reform, followed by subsequent in-depth individual interviews with eight female survivors of military sexual assault, seven of whom filed unrestricted reports between 2006 and 2014 and all of whom were separated from service between 2007 and 2015. Analysis was performed with grounded theory. </p><p> Findings provide in-depth understanding of the extensive impact of military leaders on survivors&rsquo; experiences across the military social ecology. Data indicate that when leaders themselves perpetrated, were affiliated with perpetrators, or became otherwise compromised, they damaged victims&rsquo; reporting experiences, recoveries, and support systems. These negative-destructive leaders capitalized on the close-knit, transitory, and male-dominated military environment to recruit other leaders and supports into an escalating process of defamation of and retaliation against survivors&mdash;a process described as forming ranks. As this destructive process escalated, it potentiated the harms caused by the initial assault(s) and compromised the support and protection available to victims from peers, positive-constructive leadership, and military community resources. In three cases, it contributed to survivors&rsquo; attempting to take their own lives. This destructive process also interacted with structural power dynamics to compound barriers to leader-perpetrator accountability in the command-directed justice system. By forming ranks against survivors, negative-destructive leaders ultimately deprived them of the ability to recover while they remained in service and contributed to their separations from the military&mdash;the very purpose of this retaliatory process. All participants provided actionable recommendations to increase leadership accountability and improve the military system, in order to better protect future survivors from the victimization and retraumatization that they or those they knew had endured.</p><p>

<p> Military stigma is a heavy burden of social stigma internalized by veterans who are diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during post-deployment psychological screening. PTSD is classified as a mental disorder associated with widespread reluctance to seek medical assistance. Among military veterans who suffer from combat-related posttraumatic stress (PTS), military stigma is considered a widespread problem. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore veterans&rsquo; perceptions of various aspects of military stigma, including post-deployment psychological screening, the diagnosis of PTSD, and factors associated with reluctance to seek medical assistance for PTS. In-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 10 veterans of 2 recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A modified form of labeling theory was applied to address the role of cultural stereotypes in stigma (societal and self-internalized), and the discriminatory factors associated with them. Multiple themes emerged, including a commonly held view that post-deployment health screenings are superficial, inconsistent, and ineffective procedures in which veterans feel the need to lie about their experience for fear of being stigmatized with a mental disorder. The findings confirm that the stigma associated with a diagnosis of PTSD perpetuates veterans&rsquo; reluctance to seek help for PTS, which results in multiple personal and professional problems. Remedies recommended by these veterans included improved post-deployment medical screening procedures, reclassification of PTSD as a war injury instead of a mental disorder, and PTS-related stigma awareness training. </p>

<p>The Global War on Terror has routinely exposed military personnel to PTSD qualifying traumatic events. Scant research has included a military training and occupational context among combat Veteran populations who leave military service. This retrospective cohort study explored the influence of pre-exposure training on the relationship between combat exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and functioning impairments after discharge from military service. The results confirmed an occupational associated exposure risk for approximately 15% of the US military. Despite the combative specialty Veteran experiencing more combat in frequency and intensity, there were no differences in PTSS or functioning impairment any time after discharge or within the last thirty days between occupational cohorts. The study concluded that combative occupational training is protective against the effects of battle exposure experiences, but not post battle experiences. The study results suggest that military organizational resilience training is not effective in bolstering hardiness after discharge and transitioning into the civilian population. These findings support the creation of a military occupational mental health model for future PTSD diagnosis and treatment for combat Veteran populations.

Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., 1995-96. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 21, 2003). "May 1998." Includes bibliographical references.