Long-term Outcomes of Military Service in Aging and the Life Course: A Positive Re-envisioning

Abstract

Most research on military service focuses on its short-term negative consequences, especially the mental and physical injuries of those deployed in warzones. However, studies of long-term outcomes reveal surprisingly positive effects of military service--both those early in adulthood that grow over time and others that can emerge later in life. These multidomain effects have been found in veterans of World War II and the Korean War and are now being seen in veterans of the Vietnam War. Although some are directly attributable to public policies such as the GI Bill, which facilitate educational and economic gains, there are personal developmental gains as well, including autonomy, emotional maturity and resilience, mastery, and leadership skills, that lead to better health and well-being in later life. These long-term effects vary across persons, change over time within persons, and often reflect processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage. We propose a life-span model of the effects of military service that provides a perspective for probing both long-term positive and negative outcomes for aging veterans. We further explicate the model by focusing on both sociocultural dynamics and individual processes. We identify public-use data that can be examined to evaluate this model, and offer a set of questions that can be used to assess military service. Finally, we outline an agenda for dedicated inquiry into such effects and consider policy implications for the health and well-being of aging veterans in later life.

Military service and crime: new evidence

“…This is surprising as additional analyses on substance misuse showed significantly higher substance misuse for all military service members than civilians, bolstering previous literature's findings that military members are more susceptible to substance misuse than the civilian population. Previous literature has often labeled all military members as more susceptible to substance misuse and criminal activity [10]. However, when results of this study are examined together, it is clear to see substance misuse and separation from the military below the age of 35 are the driving forces for the distinct differences found between military and civilians.…”

“…First, the military provides a highly rigid structure, replete with round-the-clock supervision of service members, which can be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 conceptualized as a natural insulator from high-risk and criminal activity [10]. Second, while criminological theorizing typically considers economic hardship and limited social resources to be risk factors for criminal offending [11], active duty military members have access to regular paychecks, as well as medical and other supportive benefits during and after their military careers [12][13].…”

Neurocognitive and psychiatric comorbidities of posttraumatic stress disorder among older veterans: A systematic review

“…For veterans, life course theory suggests that exposures associated with military service significantly influence physical, psychological, and social functioning throughout veterans' lives . A significant minority of veterans develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can have negative long‐term effects throughout their lives, even into old age . Forty‐five years after combat in World War II (WWII) and the Korean War, the prevalence of PTSD among US veterans was nearly 12% .…”

“…Life course theory posits that early life events reverberate over the life course and intertwine with additional stressors to have a cumulative and lasting impact on health and well‐being in later life . Military service is an important life event that has been considered a “hidden variable” in aging research, as military service and related factors are infrequently included in study designs .…”

Does combat exposure affect well-being in later life? The VA Normative Aging Study.

“…Combat exposure can give rise to both negative and positive outcomes (Aldwin, Levenson, & Spiro, 1994; Spiro, Settersten, & Aldwin, 2016). However, the focus of most research has been on the negative consequences of combat exposure (Fulton et al, 2015; Kang, Aldwin, Choun, & Spiro, 2016).…”