Individual, Family, and Community Predictors of PTSD Symptoms Following Military Deployment

• Author: Daniel F. Perkins,Jonathan R. Olson,LaJuana Ormsby,Janet A. Welsh
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12343

J R. O The Pennsylvania State University and Bastyr University

J A. W  D F. P The Pennsylvania State University

LJ O Air Force Medical Operations Agency

Individual, Family, and Community Predictors of

PTSD Symptoms Following Military Deployment

Objective: Using an ecological resilience

model, we sought to identify protective fac-

tors that buffer against the effects of stressful

deployment-related experiences on symptoms

of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among

active duty U.S. Air Force personnel who were

married or in a committed relationship.

Background: Stressful deployment experiences

are associated with PTSD symptoms among

active duty military personnel. However, certain

protective factors may buffer against negative

effects of such experiences.

Method: Analyses for the present study were

active duty military personnel who completed

the 2011 Air Force Community Assessment Sur-

vey, were married or in a committed relation-

ship, and had completed at least one deployment

at the time of the survey (N=12,166).

Results: Regression analyses indicated that

stressful deployment experiences were statisti-

cally related to elevated PTSD symptoms but

also that both personal and contextual fac-

tors moderated those symptoms. Furthermore,

self-efcacy, family coping, spouse/partner

support, nancial resources, and religious

participation moderated the relation between

University of Washington, Department of Psychiatry and

Behavioral Sciences, Condon Hall, 1100 NE Campus Pkwy,

Seattle, WA98105 (jro10@uw.edu).

Key Words: PTSD, resilience, self-efcacy, social context,

stress.

stressful deployment experiences and PTSD

symptoms.

Conclusion: PTSD symptoms were positively

associated with stressful deployment experi-

ences, and symptoms were less likely to occur

when service members experienced support

from individual, family, and community sources.

Implications: Interventions that promote

self-efcacy and social support from multi-

ple ecological contexts may help reduce PTSD

symptoms among combat-exposed Air Force

personnel.

Past research has demonstrated a statistical link

between stressful deployment experiences and

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms

among active duty (AD) military personnel

(e.g., Lee, Vaillant,Torrey, & Elder, 1995; Ozer,

Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2008). Despite this

general nding, the impact of stressful wartime

experiences varies considerably across indi-

viduals. Thus, the purpose of the present study

was to apply an ecological resilience approach

(Ungar, 2012) to identify individual and eco-

logical factors that moderate the deleterious

effects of stressful deployment experiences on

PTSD symptoms among AD Air Force (AF)

personnel who were married or in a commit-

ted relationship. Because ecological resilience

theory predicts that adaptation is a result of

complex interactions between individual char-

acteristics and a variety of contextual challenges

Family Relations 67 (December 2018): 615–629 615

DOI:10.1111/fare.12343