United States Army Medical Research Unit-Europe, Heidelberg, Germany.
J Trauma Stress. 2012 Jun;25(3):307-14. doi: 10.1002/jts.21701.
Benefit finding, described as one's ability to find benefits from stressful situations, has been hypothesized as a buffer against the negative effects of stress on mental health outcomes. Nonetheless, many have questioned the buffering potential of benefit finding in the face of prolonged and excessive stress such as is found in the combat environment. This study suggests that the length of a combat deployment and benefit finding may impact the relationship between combat exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Surveys were distributed to U.S. enlisted soldiers (n = 1,917), officers, and warrant officers (n = 163) of various combat and combat support units deployed to Iraq. A significant 3-way interaction (sr(2) = .004, p < .05) revealed that benefit finding buffered soldiers from increased PTSD symptoms under high levels of combat exposure early in the deployment, but not in later months. These results indicate that although benefit finding may be a useful coping approach during the early phases of deployment, prolonged exposure to stress may diminish a soldier's ability to use benefit finding as a method for coping.
益处发现，即一个人从压力情境中发现益处的能力，被假设为一种缓冲，以减轻压力对心理健康结果的负面影响。尽管如此，许多人对益处发现的缓冲潜力提出了质疑，尤其是在面对像战斗环境中那样持续和过度的压力时。这项研究表明，战斗部署的时间长短和益处发现可能会影响战斗暴露与创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状之间的关系。调查分发给了部署到伊拉克的美国 enlisted soldiers（n=1917）、军官和准尉（n=163），来自各种战斗和战斗支援部队。一个显著的 3 -way 交互作用（sr(2)=.004，p<.05）表明，在部署早期，益处发现缓冲了士兵在高战斗暴露水平下 PTSD 症状的增加，但在后期则不然。这些结果表明，尽管益处发现可能是在部署的早期阶段有用的应对方法，但长时间暴露于压力可能会降低士兵使用益处发现作为应对方法的能力。
