Di Leone Brooke A L, Wang Joyce M, Kressin Nancy, Vogt Dawne
National Center for PTSD.
Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center.
Psychol Serv. 2016 Feb;13(1):60-68. doi: 10.1037/ser0000021. Epub 2015 Mar 2.
Women have participated in the United States military since its founding. However, until the mid-20th century, there had been limited recognition of women as official members of the military, and women remain a statistical minority within military and veteran populations. It is therefore important to better understand women's veteran identity (which we define here as one's self-concept as derived from their veteran status) and associated implications for service use and experiences in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care setting. The present research examined the centrality of, and positive regard for, women's veteran identity among 407 female veterans deployed in support of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Data were collected via a mailed national survey. Positive regard for veteran identity, but not veteran identity centrality,was positively associated with participants' age and length of time spent in the military. Results also showed that the centrality of women's veteran identity was positively related to their choice to use VA for health care and their feelings of belonging within VA, and that veteran identity centrality and positive regard for veteran identity are differentially associated with participants' military experiences (e.g., combat exposure, deployment sexual harassment) and mental health symptomatology (e.g., depression).
自美国军队成立以来，女性就一直参与其中。然而，直到20世纪中叶，女性作为军队正式成员的认可度都很有限，而且在军人和退伍军人群体中，女性在统计数据上仍占少数。因此，更好地理解女性退伍军人身份（我们在此将其定义为源自其退伍军人身份的自我概念）以及对在退伍军人事务部（VA）医疗环境中使用服务和体验的相关影响非常重要。本研究调查了407名被部署以支持近期伊拉克和阿富汗战争的女性退伍军人中女性退伍军人身份的核心地位以及积极认知。数据通过全国邮寄调查收集。对退伍军人身份的积极认知，但不是退伍军人身份的核心地位，与参与者的年龄和在军队中服役的时间呈正相关。结果还表明，女性退伍军人身份的核心地位与她们选择在退伍军人事务部接受医疗保健以及她们在退伍军人事务部的归属感呈正相关，并且退伍军人身份的核心地位和对退伍军人身份的积极认知与参与者的军事经历（例如，战斗暴露、部署期间的性骚扰）和心理健康症状（例如，抑郁症）存在不同程度的关联。
