Spouses/Family Members of Service Members at Risk for PTSD or Suicide

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to gain new knowledge about the experiences of family members of service members who are experiencing symptoms of PTSD or severe depression. The study was intended to be multi-method, with an initial qualitative phase (Phase 1), and a follow-up longitudinal, quantitative phase (Phase 2). Substantial recruitment difficulties hampered the execution of the project. Multiple requests to loosen the inclusion criteria in ways that would not compromise the aims of the project were denied. Thus, we were only able to enroll 10 dyads in the male soldier/female partner group and 2 dyads in the female soldier/male partner group for Phase 1. Qualitative analysis of the 12 completed interviews revealed several themes with regard to difficulties with overall military lifestyle, personal struggles of spouses, issues related to deployment, behavioral health problems of service members, relationship and interpersonal struggles of service members, and recommendations for improvements.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1020478

Entities

People

  • Keith A. Renshaw

Organizations

  • George Mason University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adaptive Communications
  • Biomedical Research
  • Computer Programming
  • Deployment
  • Depression
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Families (Human)
  • Health
  • Human Behavior
  • Military Families
  • Mobile Phones
  • Perception
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Resilience
  • Social Psychology
  • Training

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Mental Health of Military Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Risk Factors, Prevalence, Symptoms, and Treatment.
  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.
  • Systems Analysis and Design