AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF CATHRINE HOEKSTRA, for the Master of Arts Degree in English, presented on May 6, 2016 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: INVISIBLE WOUNDS: PROCESSING TRAUMA IN WAR NARRATIVES THROUGHOUT LITERATURE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Edward Brunner Many Veterans face “invisible wounds” of war. By examining various types of war narratives in literature we can understand how these veterans cope with their invisible wounds and what others can do to help them process their trauma. This project considers types of trauma theory in addition to several short stories by Tim O’Brien and Phil Klay. Veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan often face these “invisible wounds,” and these stories help us see that trauma in its complexity. War itself is a traumatic experience, but for some veterans post-traumatic-stress occurs after the war is over. It is my hope through this project we can understand the invisible wounds of war such as post-traumatic-stress disorder and traumatic brain injury while also understanding combat stress and the struggles that veterans face in their civilian life. By examining two texts of short stories from two completely different wars, we can look at trauma from different points of view. During Vietnam some veterans were faced with isolation, often times tempted with alcohol, drugs and suicide. These members of the armed forces were not welcomed home in most cases, and Tim O’Brien’s short stories let us understand just how daunting it was to be at war, and how storytelling is key to comprehending the difficulties of this war. Drawing on another kind of wartime experience is Phil Klay, who brings about the bureaucracies of Iraq and the difficulty that some Marines face when they are home trying to integrate into civilian life. Sometimes the stories are difficult, raw, and hard to comprehend, but processing trauma also allows one to improve the quality of life. By listening to these stories we are making the storyteller valued, and we are also learning about historical and cultural contexts. In my time as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I was fortunate to work with student-veterans returning to the university after deployments. These students, all from diverse backgrounds allowed me to understand what it truly means to listen to the story and be attentive to what these students wanted and needed. By introducing war narratives, short stories, and poems in the classroom we give student-veterans an opportunity to see that writing is not only an outlet for self-expression, but also a way to let the public know what military life and deployments are like.

The present study sought to evaluate whether a brief ACT session which utilized values and committed action activities was effective in changing how student veterans responded on two different discounting surveys. Participants in experimental and control groups completed a monetary temporal discounting survey and a death probability discounting survey before and after completing either a brief ACT session or completing a control activity. Twenty-three student veterans participated in the present study and a pre-, post-group control group design was utilized to evaluate the effects of the intervention. Independent t-tests were conducted, and the results of those analyses showed that ACT was effective in decreasing discounting on the monetary temporal discounting survey (t(10) = 1.997, p = 0.0368) when compared to the control group (t(11) = 0.2088, p = 0.4192). However, there were no statistically significant changes on the death probability survey in the ACT group (t(10) = 0.2459 p = .4504) or control group (t(11) = 0.8784, p = 0.1992). Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.

More than 5,000,000 post-9/11 service members are expected to transition out of the military by 2020 due to a reduction in the size of the U.S. military and presence in Iraq and Afghanistan (American Council on Education, 2014). As these service members separate from the military many will choose to enter some form of postsecondary education. The literature across the past decade has not changed in its recommendations on how to serve student veterans. If campus administrators expect to support veteran students in their transitions, they need empirical research about the transition experiences of veteran students and not rely on best practices that are not supported by empirical evidence. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the transition experiences of Post-9/11 student veterans from a military setting to a college setting. The study used grounded theory methods to systematically review the literature about the transition of student veterans from the military to a college or university and create a conceptual framework for this study, or the Student Veteran College Transition Model (SVCTM). The SVCTM showed what strategies used by college and university administrators during a veteran's transition to college promote positive transition outcomes for student veterans within a number of conditions and contextual factors. This qualitative study used a modified version of Seidman's (2013) phenomenological interviewing and collective-case study. Semi-structured interviews provided data for the study. Findings of this study confirmed previous research that student veterans experience a challenging transition from the military to college and that military and veteran student offices and veteran student organizations play an important role in the transition for student veterans. The findings also included that the conflict between military, civilian, and academic cultures disrupted student veterans' ability to adapt to their new role as civilian and student. To combat this conflict, student veterans turn to family and other veterans internal and external to the college provide support during the transition from the military as they integrate their military, civilian, and academic identities. / Ph. D.

Research has indicated that OEF/OIF veterans are experiencing mental health concerns following deployment. While there are increasing numbers of veterans returning to higher education institutions after discharging from the military, there is a scarcity of empirical research investigating student veterans’ experiences as they transition into college. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether social support moderates the effects of psychological distress on college adjustment among a sample of student veterans. Participants were administered a Background Information Questionnaire, measures of psychological distress (i.e., GAD-7, PHQ-9, IES-R), Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Social Support, and the Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire. Multiple regressions revealed significant main effects for the variables of interest, but analyses failed to support the hypothesis that perceived social support would moderate the effects of psychological distress on college adjustment.

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This dissertation takes a three-article approach in which the literature from public administration, political psychology and sociology is synthesized around student veterans as a new phenomenon in higher education and public policy. By examining student veterans through the Social Construction of Target Populations (SCTP) framework, these articles contribute to the theoretical understanding of how social identity at the group and individual levels impact a target population's understanding of and reaction to a policy that does not always align with the policy-makers' intent. Because the current SCTP literature has focused on how policy-makers construct target populations and the practices they use to mitigate any negative effects of policy feedback, these articles offer a new perspective by applying symbolic interactionism as a method for capturing the two-way interaction between the target population and the policy's intent. The articles focus on the policy feedback mechanism in the SCTP framework to explain why and how policies shape the identities of target populations, and how they in turn, engage in the policy process by first presenting student veterans as a new social concept, then presenting a case study of how an organization that represents student veterans achieved policy change, and finally, interviewing veterans, revealing that their individual interpretation of the policy is not always representative of the student veteran identity as constructed by policy-makers and advocates. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation takes a three-article approach to understanding how and why student veterans are different from other veterans based upon the latest policy changes to expand educational benefits available through the G.I. Bill. The first article describes what policy-makers and veterans’ organizations claim a student veterans is – a Post 9/11 veteran pursuing higher education that will lead to a career or fulfill the needs of 21st Century jobs. The second article presents a case-study of how an organization that represents student veterans was able to engage in the policy-making process and succeed in achieving policy changes that resulted in the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the Forever G.I. Bill. The third article focuses on the factors influencing veterans’ decision-making process about when and how to use their educational benefits based on how they understand and interpret the policy. All three articles provide a new perspective on the ways in which policy-makers and advocacy groups can create a new social identity group, such as student veterans, and design and implement policies based on the assumptions these policy actors have about the group. However, at the individual level, student veterans might not always behave in the way policy-makers expect them to, causing student veterans to use or not use their educational benefits based on their perceptions of what the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill means to them.

Institutions of higher education are a key pathway for supplying the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Military service members have been identified as STEM-ready and a potential pool for STEM as they transition into civilian careers. Furthermore, women are the fastest growing subpopulation of veterans and may decrease the gender gap within STEM. Higher education researchers are interested in understanding the characteristics and experiences of students who select STEM majors and then persist to graduation. Literature related to women veterans is limited and a qualitative case study approach was utilized to achieve an in-depth understanding of their college experiences. This study examined four women who were successfully navigating STEM majors at one institution and revealed their varying motivations for enrollment and persistence. Three themes generated from this study included: self-awareness, success is personal, and military experience matters. Subsidiary themes included starting over; strategy; salience of age; stage of life; self-advocacy; standards; personal attributes; past experiences; personal responsibility for learning; procuring resources; career path (STEM) reinforced or introduced; creditable and credible; and cultivated soft skills. Veteran critical theory, multiple dimensions of identity and intersectionality were useful frameworks to reference as participants expressed the influence of their identities on their life and military experiences. The findings illuminate ways institutions of higher education can facilitate women veterans' success as students, supplying much needed diversity to the STEM pipeline.

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Mattering involves feeling as though oneself belongs in a community and tends to influence one’s college experience. The issue of mattering has been explored in social psychology and education literature. Such research has sought to understand the transitions and necessary role changes of college students. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of studies on perceived mattering within one specific college student population—student veterans and active service members (SV/ASM). Higher learning institutions have expressed concerns about the academic progress of the SV/ASM population upon transitioning into college. However, no previous studies have examined the relationship between SV/ASM’s sense of mattering and their academic success. As such, the purpose of this study was twofold. First, it attempted to develop a mattering scale in order to examine SV/ASM mattering. Second, it explored the predictive ability of perceived mattering variables to SV/ASM’s academic success, as measured by their cumulative grade point average (GPA). The Mattering Scales for Adult Students in Higher Education (MHE) was used in this quantitative study with demographic questions. A sample of 129 SV/ASM enrolled at a research-based university in the midwestern region of the United States was used in this survey. An exploratory factor analysis was applied to operationalize the construct of mattering from MHE in order to investigate the SV/ASM’s feelings of mattering regarding the higher education environment. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine the effects of the mattering variables from MHE on the SV/ASM’s GPA. This study found that four mattering dimensions in the higher education environment could be employed to measure SV/ASM’s sense of mattering: peers, faculty, advising, and administration. The findings revealed that the SV/ASM generally have a neutral sense of mattering to their non-military peers and the university’s administration, while expressing a positive sense of mattering to their faculty members and advisors. The findings also indicated that peers and administration may impact SV/ASM’s academic success. Therefore, higher learning institutions should strive to provide tailored administration and positive peer interactions for SV/ASM in order to promote their overall academic success in higher education.

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