Gender differences in combat-related stressors and their association with postdeployment mental health in a nationally representative sample of U.S. OEF/OIF veterans.

Abstract

Though the broader literature suggests that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of trauma exposure, most available studies on combat trauma have relied on samples in which women's combat exposure is limited and analyses that do not directly address gender differences in associations between combat exposure and postdeployment mental health. Female service members' increased exposure to combat in Afghanistan and Iraq provides a unique opportunity to evaluate gender differences in different dimensions of combatrelated stress and associated consequence for postdeployment mental health. The current study addressed these research questions in a representative sample of female and male U.S. veterans who had returned from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq within the previous year. As expected, women reported slightly less exposure than men to most combat-related stressors, but higher exposure to other stressors (i.e., prior life stress, deployment sexual harassment). No gender differences were observed in reports of perceived threat in the war zone. Though it was hypothesized that combat-related stressors would demonstrate stronger negative associations with postdeployment mental health for women, only one of 16 stressor ϫ gender interactions achieved statistical significance and an evaluation of the clinical significance of these interactions revealed that effects were trivial. Results suggest that female Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom service members may be as resilient to combat-related stress as men. Future research is needed to evaluate gender differences in the longer-term effects of combat exposure.

Physical comorbidities of post‐traumatic stress disorder in Australian Vietnam War veterans

“…Women with combat exposure may be more likely than men to screen positive for PTSD [132,163] and depression [75,120]. However, this association is not shown for some groups [103,122,181]. Subsequent physical health and diagnoses may vary according to gender if deployment tasks differ for men and women.…”

Being a Female Veteran: A Grounded Theory of Coping With Transitions

“…Military stressors include perceived threats and difficult living and working environments (Vogt, Samper, King, King, & Martin, 2008), as well as deployment stressors, lack of social support, and concerns about family disruptions (Vogt, Pless, King, & King, 2005). Many female and male veterans with combat exposure experience PTSD (Feczer & Bjorklund, 2009;Murdoch et al 2003;Vogt, Vaughn et al, 2011;Vogt et al, 2008). Further research demonstrates a high incidence (40%) of MST for females (Campbell & Raja, 2005;Haskell et al, 2010;Sadler, Booth, Mengeling, & Doebbeling 2004), and an association between MST and PTSD (Murdoch, Polusny, Hodges, & Cowper, 2006).…”

Gender Differences in Response to Deployment Among Military Healthcare Providers in Afghanistan and Iraq

“…Some of these researchers failed to find gender differences in mental health problems occurring postdeployment, [7][8][9][10][11] but a few studies have found a higher incidence of PTSD in females returning from deployment compared with males, 12,13 who appear to have more substance abuse problems. 11 In some of these studies, female service members were also more likely than men to screen positive for depression.…”

“…11 In some of these studies, female service members were also more likely than men to screen positive for depression. 7,8,11,[13][14][15] Greater psychologic morbidity has been seen in deployed military HCPs, explained by poorer group cohesion and traumatic military medical and postdeployment experiences. 16 Returning HCPs did not think that people understood what they had been through during deployment and felt unsupported.…”