Measurement of Severity of Combat, Involvement in Harming Civilians and Prisoners, and Personal Vulnerability Load

Abstract

This chapter presents detailed measures of each of the three factors that most strongly affect the psychological impact of the Vietnam war on U.S. male veterans. These descriptions build on the detailed accounts in Chapter 2 of the use of military records to develop more comprehensive measures of war-zone experiences. The measures of harm to civilians and prisoners are based on veteran self-reports. The measures of pre-Vietnam vulnerability load include data from military records, such as the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), pre-war education levels, and NVVRS interview data that enable diagnoses of important types of psychiatric disorder other than PTSD. Less central, but perhaps no less important, other risk factor variables and their measurement are set forth in later chapters at the point they are first introduced.