Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University.
Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University.
Psychol Serv. 2023 Aug;20(3):516-524. doi: 10.1037/ser0000627. Epub 2022 Feb 24.
Social support is closely linked to health, but little is known about United States (U.S.) veterans' social support over time and factors that may influence their support trajectories. This study investigates social support over time for U.S. men and women Post-9/11 veterans in relation to trauma history and gender. A secondary analysis of longitudinal cohort data from the Survey of Experiences of Returning Veterans (SERV), which employed a repeated-measures longitudinal design using five waves of data (baseline, 3, 6, 9, 12 months) with 672 combat veterans. Results from random intercept multilevel models found no significant gender differences in social support over time. Veterans with complex trauma histories were at risk for lower social support across waves. A stability trend was also observed; specifically, at baseline, veterans who started with high support maintained their level over time whereas veterans who started with deficits in social support remained low over time. Veterans identifying as African American or Latinx, and those with lower annual incomes, reported lower support compared to White and higher-income veterans. Furthermore, low social support was significantly associated with severe posttraumatic stress symptoms and active suicidal ideation across 12 months. SERV utilized a nonrandom sampling method that may reduce generalizability of findings. There is also potential for residual confounding by factors related to both social support levels and time since discharge that were not available in this data set. Findings have implications for developing clinical and community interventions intended to support veterans as they transition back to the community. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
社会支持与健康密切相关，但人们对美国（U.S.）退伍军人随时间推移的社会支持以及可能影响他们支持轨迹的因素知之甚少。本研究调查了与创伤史和性别有关的美国 9/11 后退伍军人随时间推移的社会支持情况。对从经验调查退伍军人服务（SERV）的纵向队列数据进行的二次分析，该调查采用重复测量纵向设计，使用五波数据（基线、3、6、9、12 个月），共 672 名战斗退伍军人。随机截距多层模型的结果发现，社会支持随时间推移的性别差异不显著。有复杂创伤史的退伍军人在各波次的社会支持较低。还观察到稳定性趋势；具体来说，在基线时，起点较高的退伍军人随着时间的推移保持了他们的水平，而起点较低的社会支持不足的退伍军人随着时间的推移仍然较低。与白人退伍军人和高收入退伍军人相比，自我认同为非裔美国人和拉丁裔退伍军人以及年收入较低的退伍军人报告的支持率较低。此外，低社会支持与 12 个月内严重创伤后应激症状和积极自杀意念显著相关。SERV 采用了非随机抽样方法，可能会降低研究结果的普遍性。在这个数据集之外，与社会支持水平和退伍后时间有关的潜在混杂因素也可能存在。这些发现对制定旨在支持退伍军人重返社区的临床和社区干预措施具有重要意义。
