Military veterans’ individual perceptions of their combat experiences and the social supports they receive when they return home are greater predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms than the specific conflict in which they served, a new Oregon State University study found.
The study, published in the journal The Gerontologist, surveyed combat veterans from the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War and post-9/11 wars with questions about PTSD symptoms and how they felt about their military and post-military experiences.
OSU researchers were surprised by how similar veterans’ experiences were across the three conflict eras.
“Regardless of the conditions of war — and they’ve really changed dramatically in the last 50 years — it’s the individual’s experience, and what happens after the war, that’s the biggest predictor of PTSD,” said study co-author Carolyn Aldwin, professor emerita in OSU’s College of Health, director of OSU’s gerontology program and former director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research.