Military Psychology最新文献

Research on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) typically focuses on diagnosis or symptom severity, however, this overlooks the variety of symptom patterns that exist. Latent profile analysis was used to explore PTSS profiles in a sample of Norwegian Afghanistan veterans (n = 4052, 91.7% males). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine predictors and outcomes associated with PTSS profile membership. Three profiles emerged: Low Symptoms profile (85%); High Numbing and Arousal profile (13%); and High Symptoms profile (2%). Being female, lower number of deployments, barriers to disclose war-related experiences, and higher number of potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) were associated with belonging to the High Symptoms profile compared to the High Numbing and Arousal (Male gender: OR = 0.37, p < .05; Number of deployments: OR = 0.68, p < .05; Barriers to disclose: OR = 1.39, p < .001; PMIEs: OR = 1.15. p < .05), or Low Symptoms profile (Male gender: OR = 0.36, p < .05; Number of deployments: OR = 0.67, p < .01; Barriers to disclose: OR = 1.80, p < .001; PMIEs: OR = 1.32. p < .001). Participants in the High Symptoms profile had the highest probability of mental health service use (0.37) and endorsing suicidal ideation (0.38), compared to the two other profiles (p < .01). Participants in the High Numbing and Arousal profile had a higher probability of seeking professional mental health care (0.17), endorsing suicidal ideation (0.16), and reporting more suicide attempts compared to the Low Symptom profile (0.02 vs. 0.00, p < .001). These findings highlight the importance of considering the heterogeneity of PTSS profiles and understanding the predictors and responses of individuals who exhibit elevated PTSS symptoms.

Lethal force training requires individuals to make threat assessments, which involves holistic scenario processing to identify potential threats. Photorealistic targets can make threat/non-threat judgments substantially more genuine and challenging compared to simple cardboard or silhouette targets. Unfortunately, repeated target use also brings unintended consequences that could invalidate threat assessment processes conducted during training. Contextually rich or unique targets could be implicitly memorable in a way that allows observers to recall weapon locations rather than forcing observers to conduct a naturalistic assessment. Experiment 1 demonstrated robust contextual cueing effects in a well-established shoot/don't-shoot stimulus set, and Experiment 2 extended this finding from complex scene stimuli to simple actor-only stimuli. Experiment 3 demonstrated that these effects also occurred among trained professionals using rifles rather than computer-based tasks. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the potential for uncontrolled target repetition to alter the fundamental processes of threat assessment during lethal force training.

Inadequate sleep is an on-going risk to the health and mission readiness of U.S. Armed Forces, with estimates of sleep problems high above U.S. civilian populations. Intervening early in the career of active duty Air Force personnel (or "Airmen") with education and the establishment of healthy behaviors may prevent short and long term-detriments of sleep problems. This paper describes the results of a qualitative study seeking to understand the facilitators and barriers to achieving good sleep in a technical training school during the first year of entry into the United States Air Force. Using the social ecological framework and content analysis, three focus groups with Airmen were conducted to explore themes at the individual, social, environmental, and organizational/policy level. Overall, results indicated a cohort motivated to achieve good sleep, and also struggling with a number of barriers across each level. This paper highlights opportunities for population health interventions during technical training aimed at supporting Airmen in developing healthy sleep behaviors early in the course of their career.

U.S. service members are at an enhanced risk for developing mental disorders. To address these challenges, while promoting operational readiness and improving mental health outcomes, the Department of Defense directed each service component to develop and implement universal resilience enhancing programs. This paper provides a review of theoretical approaches conceptualizing resilience to trauma, including the theoretical foundations of programs currently in place. The resilience programs of U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps are described, and available program effectiveness data are reviewed. Gaps between theory and practice are identified and an alternative method of assessing psychological readiness in Army units that is informed by resilience theory is offered as one way to address these gaps and scientific concerns. By comprehensively assessing the stressors affecting Soldiers at regular intervals, military leaders may be able to better identify and mitigate stressors in a systematic way that bolsters individual and unit psychological fitness. An enhanced psychological readiness metric stands to strengthen the validity of current resilience programs, bring clarity to the mechanisms of resilience, and provide a novel way for leaders to promote readiness in their units. Application of this metric within the infrastructure of existing reporting systems stands to improve mental health outcomes for Service Members, enhance the psychological readiness of the force, and reduce healthcare costs over time.

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are tools designed to help operators make effective choices in workplace environments where discernment and critical thinking are required for effective performance. Path planning in military operations and general logistics both require individuals to make complex and time-sensitive decisions. However, these decisions can be complex and involve the synthesis of numerous tradeoffs for various paths with dynamically changing conditions. Intelligence collection can vary in difficulty, specifically in terms of the disparity between locations of interest and timing restrictions for when and how information can be collected. Furthermore, plans may need to be changed adaptively mid-operation, as new collection requirements appear, increasing task difficulty. We tested participants in a path planning decision-making exercise with scenarios of varying difficulty in a series of two experiments. In the first experiment, each map displayed two paths simultaneously, relating to two possible routes for the two available trucks. Participants selected the optimal path plan, representing the best solution across multiple routes. In the second experiment, each map displayed a single path, and participants selected the best two paths sequentially. In the first experiment, utilizing the DSS was predictive of adoption of more heuristic decision strategies, and that strategic approach yielded more optimal route selection. In the second experiment, there was a direct effect of the DSS on increased decision performance and a decrease in perceived task workload.

Mindfulness and resilience are thought to be essential qualities of the military's special operations community. Both are tested daily in Special Operations Forces (SOF) assessment and selection efforts to prepare candidates to persist through grueling training and complex combat situations; but these qualities are rarely measured. While military leadership places value on the concepts of mindfulness and resilience, there is minimal empirical research examining the role that they play in the completion of training. This longitudinal study followed three classes of SEAL candidates at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training over their six-month selection program. We estimated logit models predicting successful completion of BUD/S and specific types of failure in that training environment with indexes of mindfulness and resilience at the start of the program as predictors of completion. The results indicate that (1) mindfulness is unrelated to completion, while (2) resilience is positively related to completion, and (3) The results indicate that mindfulness is generally unrelated to completion, while resilience generally predicts completion.

National Guard soldiers experience unique reintegration challenges. In addition to managing the consequences of combat-related trauma, they also navigate multiple transitions between military and civilian life. Despite these obstacles, many soldiers report positive outcomes and personal growth due to deployment, a phenomenon most commonly referred to in the literature as posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study explored PTG in National Guard soldiers using a multidimensional longitudinal approach, with the goal of validating reports of PTG in soldiers. Data were collected from National Guard soldiers at pre-deployment, reintegration, one year post-deployment and two years post-deployment. Informed by PTG theory, three PTG constructs were measured (perceived ability to handle stress, social support seeking, and purpose in life) at each of the four time points, with increases in these constructs indicating growth. Potential predictors of growth in these PTG constructs were also explored. Results from a repeated measure latent profile analysis indicated that PTG did occur in certain soldiers, and that higher optimism and less severe PTSD symptoms predict this growth. These findings emphasize the importance of making efforts to facilitate PTG in soldiers.

Beginning in 1999, Department of Defense policy directed the military services to develop Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC) programs to address prevention, early identification, and management of the negative effects of combat and operational stress. The aim of this study is to provide a narrative review of COSC programs and organize them into a prevention framework to clarify gaps and future directions. A systematic search was conducted to identify studies between 2001 and 2020 in peer-reviewed articles or government-sponsored reports describing an evaluation of COSC programs. The target population of these programs was US service members who had participated in an intervention designed to address combat or operational stress in a deployed, operational, or field setting. These programs then were rated for level of evidence and categorized using a tiered prevention model. This search identified 36 published evaluations of 19 COSC programs and interventions from. Most programs were described as effective in addressing target outcomes, with behavioral health outcomes reported for 13 of the 19 identified programs; the remaining six focused on knowledge base and behavior changes. Delivery of these prevention programs also ranged from peer-based implementation to formal treatment, including programs at all prevention levels. COSC interventions show promise for helping service members manage stress, with more than half of the programs showing evidence from studies using randomized designs. Future iterations of COSC program evaluations should explore the development of a joint curriculum using existing content in a tiered prevention framework.

This integrative review expands on the work of Kramer et al. (2020), by reviewing studies that utilized the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) to examine the interpersonal constructs (thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness) of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS) to understand suicidal thoughts and behaviors among service members and Veterans with combat experience. Very few studies (n = 9) in the literature were identified, however important relationships were revealed between combat exposure/experiences, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among military samples. Studies also reported risk factors for high levels of thwarted belongingness or perceived burdensomeness in military samples, such as moral injuries, betrayal, and aggression. This review highlights the utility of the INQ to measure ITS constructs among Post-9/11 U.S. Combat Veterans.