Veterans are an increasing population in postsecondary education. Many student veterans have disabilities affecting their well-being and success in college. This study aims to add to current knowledge on well-being by exploring the relationship between flourishing, personality traits, and service-connected disability among student veterans. First, we set out to psychometrically validate the Flourishing Scale (FS) for student veterans. Second, we evaluated the association of the Big-Five personality traits and flourishing. Finally, we evaluated the differences in flourishing among student veterans with and without service-connected disabilities. Two hundred five student veterans were recruited for the current study. A random split-half approach was adopted to perform an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Subsequent to conducting the EFA and CFA, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between flourishing and Big-Five personality traits. Finally, an independent-samples t test was conducted to compare the flourishing scores of student veterans with and without a service-connected disability. Findings indicated FS is a reliable and valid scale that could be used to measure flourishing in student veterans. Detailed findings and their implications for rehabilitation counseling are provided.

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Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the intermediary role of physical health quality of life and ability to participate social roles and activities in the relationship between pain intensity and mental health quality of life in veterans with mental illnesses. Methods This is a cross-sectional correlational design study. Our participants are 156 veterans with self-reported mental illness ( M age = 37.85; SD age = 10.74). Descriptive, correlation, and mediation analyses were conducted for the current study. Results Pain intensity was negatively correlated with physical health QOL, ability to participate in social roles and activities, and mental health QOL. Physical health QOL and ability to participate in social roles and activities were positively associated with mental health QOL, respectively. Physical health QOL was positively correlated with a ability to participate in social roles and activities. Study results indicate that the effect of pain intensity on mental health QOL can be explained by physical health QOL and ability to participate. Conclusions Specific recommendations for practitioners include implementing treatment goals that simultaneously focus on physical health and ability to participate in social roles and activities for clients who present with both physical pain and low mental health QOL.

This study examined the relationship between job loss and mental health during the pandemic among a nationally representative sample of middle‐ and low‐income military veterans and civilians. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk in May–June 2020. Our sample was comparable to the U.S. population with respect to key demographics (i.e., sex, race, ethnicity, and geographic region). More veterans were male (36.9% civilians vs. 74.1% veterans), and on average they were older than civilians ( M civilians = 47.86 vs. M veterans = 52.64). After controlling for sociodemographic factors, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for veterans = 1.96, 95% [1.22–3.15]) was significantly associated with job loss among veterans, whereas among civilians, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for civilians [AOR c ] = 1.48, 95% [1.21–1.81]), probable COVID‐19 era‐related stress (AOR c = 1.73, 95% [1.45–2.07]), and loneliness (AOR c = 1.09, 95% [1.04–1.13]) were associated with job loss. Results demonstrated that veteran sample's effect sizes were larger than civilian sample's effect sizes; however, our moderation analyses results revealed that veteran status did not moderate the relationships between mental health and job loss. The findings in this study support a relationship between job loss and poorer mental health, suggesting that increased mental health services may be important to address ongoing effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

We examined mediating effects of the pillars of well-being (i.e., positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) on the relationship between PTSD symptoms and college life adjustment for student veterans. We recruited 205 student veterans. Mediation analysis was conducted to test whether the pillars of well-being mediate the relationship between PTSD and college life adjustment. The results showed that positive emotion and accomplishment had mediating effects on the relationship between PTSD symptoms and college adjustment.