Predeployment Gender Differences in Stressors and Mental Health Among U.S. National Guard Troops Poised for Operation Iraqi Freedom Deployment

Abstract

Increased exposure of women soldiers to combat in current conflicts heightens interest in the question of whether risk and resilience factors differ for female and male military personnel prior to deployment. The authors examined this question in a panel of 522 National Guard soldiers (462 men and 60 women) poised for deployment to Iraq. Soldiers completed a battery of self-report measures, including the PTSD Checklist, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and scales from the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory. Modest differences were observed between women and men on predeployment risk factors and some risk-related correlations with PTSD and depression measures; however, gender did not moderate the associations between hypothesized risk/resilience factors and baseline mental health. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed.

Document Details

• Document Type: Technical Report
• Publication Date: Feb 01, 2010
• Accession Number: ADA514783

Entities

People

• Christopher R. Erbes
• Maureen Murdoch
• Melissa A. Polusny
• Paul Thuras
• Robin Carter-visscher
• Shannon M. Kehle

Organizations

• Minneapolis VA Medical Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Department Of Veterans Affairs
• Deployment
• Depression
• Health Services
• Iraqi-War
• Medical Personnel
• Mental Disorders
• Mental Health
• Military Personnel
• National Guard
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Regression Analysis
• Sexual Assault
• Social Psychology
• Societies
• Traumatic Stress Disorder

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.
• Strategic Security Studies