Department of Psychology.
Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions.
Psychol Trauma. 2019 May;11(4):379-382. doi: 10.1037/tra0000385. Epub 2018 Jul 2.
Although killing in combat is associated with negative mental health outcomes and hazardous alcohol use, mechanisms that underlie this risk are not well understood. To our knowledge, this present brief report is the first to use mediation analysis to examine associations between killing in combat, distinct facets of rumination (problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thoughts), and negative mental health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicidality) and hazardous alcohol use.
Participants were a community sample of 283 military personnel (158 males [60.31%]; mean age = 32.61 [ = 7.11]) who had deployed in support of recent wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Participants completed an online self-report survey.
Three rumination facets (i.e., problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual thinking, and anticipatory thoughts) uniquely (controlling for effects of other rumination facets) mediated the associations between killing in combat and negative mental health outcomes and hazardous alcohol use. Taken together, killing in combat was associated with higher levels of each rumination facet, which in turn were distinctly associated with more negative symptoms of mental health and more hazardous drinking (problem-focused thoughts were the only facet to mediate all effects). Beyond these significant mediation effects, killing in combat still had a significant direct effect on every outcome.
These findings provide preliminary support for associations between killing in combat and negative mental health outcomes and hazardous alcohol use. Furthermore, rumination (particularly problem-focused thoughts) may be an important consideration in the evaluation and care of recent-era combat veterans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
虽然在战斗中杀人与负面心理健康结果和危险的酒精使用有关，但支撑这种风险的机制尚不清楚。据我们所知，本简要报告首次使用中介分析来检验战斗杀人与不同的反刍思维（问题聚焦思维、反事实思维、重复思维和预期思维）之间的关联，以及与负面心理健康结果（即抑郁、焦虑、创伤后应激障碍、自杀意念）和危险的酒精使用。
参与者是一个由 283 名军事人员（男性 158 人[60.31%]；平均年龄= 32.61 [=7.11]）组成的社区样本，他们曾在伊拉克或阿富汗的最近战争中部署。参与者完成了一项在线自我报告调查。
三个反刍思维方面（即问题聚焦思维、反事实思维和预期思维）独特地（控制其他反刍思维方面的影响）中介了战斗杀人与负面心理健康结果和危险酒精使用之间的关联。总的来说，战斗杀人与每个反刍思维方面的水平升高有关，而这些方面又与更严重的心理健康负面症状和更危险的饮酒行为明显相关（问题聚焦思维是唯一中介所有影响的方面）。除了这些显著的中介效应外，战斗杀人仍然对每个结果都有显著的直接影响。
这些发现为战斗杀人与负面心理健康结果和危险酒精使用之间的关联提供了初步支持。此外，反刍（特别是问题聚焦思维）可能是评估和照顾近代战斗退伍军人的一个重要考虑因素。
