The Impact of Combat Status on Veterans’ Attitudes Toward Help Seeking: The Hierarchy of Combat Elitism

Abstract

Many veterans do not seek assistance for mental health concerns despite the staggering prevalence of trauma-related symptomatology. Barriers to service provision include personal and professional stigma and inter-veteran attitudes that dictate who is more or less deserving of services. Veteran attitudes are shaped by military culture, which promotes a hyper-masculine paradigm upholding combat experience as the defining feature of the "ideal soldier." The stratification of soldiers into combat or non-combat status creates a hierarchy of combat elitism that extends far beyond active duty. This pilot study surveyed veterans (n = 24) to explore how combat experience may affect attitudes toward help seeking. Findings indicate combat and non-combat veterans are less accepting of non-combat veterans' help-seeking behavior, supporting the notion that veterans' attitudes toward help seeking are influenced by combat status. Despite limitations, the results of this study reflect a need for increased attention to the attitudes veterans have about each other and themselves.

Don’t Fight Like a Girl

“…Revealing a preference for healthy, combat experienced soldiers and aversion to female soldiers, it is noteworthy that the participants had the most impassioned responses for persons unlike themselves. Previous military literature supports the authors' assertions that this is most likely associated with the hierarchy created by the masculine climate of the military and the combat elitism (Ashley & Brown, 2015) inherent in heroism. However, these findings directly conflict with Moreland and Zajonc's (1982) study, showing that perceived similarity was related to likability and familiarity.…”

“…that would be easily understood by military personnel. Vignettes for male soldiers were pilot tested and results published previously (see Ashley & Brown, 2015).…”

Student Veterans with Invisible Disabilities: Accommodation-Seeking in Higher Education

“…Potential for a Cultural Mismatch: Being a non-traditional student in an academic setting, some student veterans are older than non-veteran students, they may be from families that have less experience in university settings, and they may be financially independent from their families of origin (Selber, 2015). Academic culture is not driven by team and mission needs, rather, is more individualized (Ashley & Brown, 2015;Castro et al, 2015) This mismatch could enhance feelings of "us vs. them" (Student veteran and non-veteran student) and cause student veterans to disengage from the classroom, class content, or other students.…”

Destigmatizing Experiences of Combat Veterans Engaged in Civilian Disaster Relief: Implications for Community Transition

“…Combat veterans are inclined to interact with other combat veterans because of shared experience (Ashley & Brown, 2015;Keats, 2010). Extant literature indicates that individuals' social network is typically made up of peers who are similar (Aboud & Mendelson, 1996).…”

“…Combat veterans possess attributes of differentness from non-combat veterans (i.e., those veterans who have not been exposed to combat) and most others in society because military training can reinforce hyper-masculine behaviors, namely competitiveness, distrust of others, aggression, and emotional insensitivity (Ashley & Brown, 2015;Brooks, 1999). In addition, combat veterans being exposed to or engaging in the atrocities of war can make civilians question whether or not these veterans can be trusted to not act aggressively towards others (McCann & Pearlman, 1990;Weiss et al, 2011).…”