Abstract
The literature has reported that some older veterans are still distressed by memories of traumatic experiences decades after wartime military service. Recent research has suggested that posttraumatic stress symptoms may appear or reappear during late life in survivors of past trauma and that stress associated with age-related changes may intensify this phenomenon. This dissertation research examined the relationship between past combat exposure and posttraumatic stress symptomatology in community-dwelling veterans of World War II and the Korean War. The risk factor of perceived stress and the protective factor of perceived social support were examined for their potential to exacerbate or mitigate this relationship. The study also investigated the effect of past combat exposure and the role of the moderating variables on health-related quality of life. A secondary aim of the research was to assess the direct effect of perceived stress and perceived social support on the outcome variables.
The results indicated that past combat exposure was positively associated with experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms in World War II and Korean War veterans. Perceived stress was found to significantly exacerbate this relationship. Direct effect relationships were found between perceived stress and both posttraumatic stress symptomatology and health-related quality of life. The mean number of posttraumatic stress symptoms experienced by participants at the symptomatic level was five. The most frequent symptom experienced was sleep disturbance, the second was becoming upset at reminders of the traumatic experience. Increased levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms were found in veterans who were not married, living in an urban area, and diagnosed with depression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-05082006-114827 |
| Date | 15 May 2006 |
| Creators | Hart, Carol L |
| Contributors | Lambert Maguire, Ph.D., Richard K. Morycz, Ph.D., Gary Koeske, Ph.D., Esther Sales, Ph.D. |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05082006-114827/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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