The suicide rate in the United States continues to rise, and rates of Veteran deaths are 1.5 times greater than those of non-Veteran adults. Previous research demonstrates that higher rates of suicide acceptability are positively related to suicide planning, suicidal ideation, and attempts. Examining rates of suicide acceptability in a Veteran and non-Veteran sample may be one pathway to understand the process by which attitudes are linked to behaviors. Study 1: Study 1 included a preliminary examination of a pre-screening measure, the Veteran Verification Questionnaire (VVQ), which aims to increase the validity of a Veteran sample online and reduce possible misrepresentation. Results indicated that the VVQ successfully differentiated between Veterans and non-Veteran students. Additionally, participants that answered 8 out of 12 possible items correctly were more likely to be Veterans (89%) whereas a score of 7 or less indicated that the participant was more likely to be a student. Study 2: Study 2 first examined whether or not veterans and non-Veterans differed significantly on suicide acceptability when accounting for age and sex. Study 2 also examined whether Veteran status predicted suicide acceptability using the Attitudes Towards Suicide Scale in the sample after accounting for age, sex, suicide risk and exposure to suicide. The results demonstrated that suicide acceptability rates varied significantly between Veterans and non-Veterans such that Veterans endorsed higher rates of suicide acceptability. The results from a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicate that suicide risk, suicide exposure, and Veteran status accounted for a total of 25% of the variance in acceptability scores. The findings also demonstrate that Veteran status only accounted for 4% of the total variance whereas suicide risk accounted for 10% and exposure to suicide behaviors accounted for 11%. Interestingly, the direction of these predictions between suicide risk and exposure to suicide with suicide attitudes were opposite of expected.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of the content, author demographics, publishing history, and media representation of the most prominent Vietnam veteran memoirs published between 1967 and 2005. These personal narratives are important because they have affected the collective memory of the Vietnam War for decades. The primary focus of this study is an analysis of how veterans' memoirs depict seven important topics: the demographics of American soldiers, combat, the Vietnamese people, race relations among U.S. troops, male-female relationships, veterans' postwar lives, and war-related political issues. The central theme that runs through these analyses is that these seven topics are depicted in ways that show veteran narratives represent constructed memories of the past, not infallible records of historical events. One reoccurring indication of this is that while memoirists' portrayals are sometimes supported by other sources and reflect historical reality, other times they clash with facts and misrepresent what actually happened. Another concern of this dissertation is the relationship of veteran memoirs to broader trends in public remembrance of the Vietnam War, and how and why some books, but not others, were able to achieve recognition and influence. These issues are explored by charting the publishing history of veteran narratives over a thirty-eight year period, and by analyzing media coverage of these books. This research indicates that mainstream editors and reviewers selected memoirs that portrayed the war in a negative manner, but rejected those that espoused either unambiguous anti- or pro-war views. By giving some types of narratives preference over others, the media and the publishing industry helped shape the public's collective understanding of the war. / History

A troubled Marine Corps veteran, home from a combat tour in Iraq in 2003, must choose between making a better life for himself in college or staying with the self-destructive friends he served with during the war. / Master of Fine Arts

The problem of placing patients in the homes of paid caretakers is multifarious and complex. Among the most basic of the questions facing the agency planning to place patients is: what kind of patient to place in what kind of a home? When stated criteria are lacking for the selection of patients for both types of settings from the same hospital, the social worker's judgments become the gauge by which selection is made. This situation prevails at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Gulfport, Mississippi. Delineation of the factors contributing to successful placement would be useful in the selection and preparation of patients for community placement. The data of this study are primarily related to the successful community placement made by sixty white male veterans. Answers were sought to the following questions by an analysis of the data collected on 34 descriptive items. (1) How does the literature present and describe halfway house and foster home care as a form of community placement for male veteran patients? (2) Do the 30 veteran patients who have made a successful adjustment in the foster home care differ significantly from the 30 veteran patients who have made a successful adjustment to halfway house care when distributed on 10 selected social or baseline characteristics? (3) Do any of the 9 hospital and 8 military items significantly differentiate the patients in foster home care from the patients in halfway house care? (4) How do the 7 community placement adjustment items differentiate the two sub-samples? / Typescript. / "June, 1961." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: Dorothy D. Hayes, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-66).

"The purpose of this study was to discover some psychosocial characteristics of fifty out-patients who re-opened their cases two or more times, and to investigate the extent of change that some of these psychosocial characteristics underwent, by comparing the data collected at the first intake interview with the data collected at the latest intake interview"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: William L. Leap, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references.

"The focus of this study is the operation of the Rehabilitation and Hospital Industries Program in effect at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coral Gables, Florida. More specifically, the study will be focused on the inter-related and interacting professional roles of the team members involved in administering the Program. A review of the literature pertaining to the development of the idea of work as a method of therapy in the rehabilitation of the mental patient will be presented. Interviews with the five team members--Physician, Coordinator, Social Worker, Clinical Psychologist, and Counselling Psychologist--who comprise the study group, will be presented and used as a basis of inductive analysis. The professional roles will be described in detail, both self-perceptions and perceptions of other members of the team"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: David L. Levine, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references.

"The purpose of this study was to identify some of the distinguishing characteristics in the backgrounds of patients who presented problems in connection with their hospital discharge (and were thus referred to Social Work Service for discharge planning) from those who did not present such problems. At the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coral Gables, Florida, the economic, social and military factors of 50 patients referred to Social Work Service were compared with those of 50 patients who left the hospital without needing help with discharge planning. Records were kept concerning the number and type of interviews which the social worker had with the fifty patients and/or their family members in order to effect their discharge. The diagnoses and length of stay of these 100 patients were tabulated for the purpose of comparison also. It is hoped that this information will be of value in the future in improving discharge planning techniques, in reducing length of hospital stay for greater utilization of beds, and in obtaining the ultimate in rehabilitation for such patients"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1961." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: Dorothy D. Hayes, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62).

Thesis (M.H.S.A.)--University of Michigan, 1980.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80).