The Correlates of Abusive Violence Among Post-9/11 U.S. Military Veterans

Abstract

Acts of abusive violence by U.S. military personnel are well documented, but little is known regarding the frequency of participation in and/or observation of such behaviors within the modern military and its potential associations with psychosocial impairment. The current analyses expand this work by examining the frequency and correlates of participation in and observation of nine distinct abusive violence behaviors within a sample (N = 1,345) of deployed Veterans over-selected for trauma-related symptoms. Observation of at least one abusive violence behavior was reported by 40% of the total sample. Participation in at least one form of abusive violence was reported by 14% of the total sample. The nomological networks of abusive violence participation and observation were highly similar to each other, but distinct from that of lifetime potentially traumatic event exposure.