TY - JOUR
T1 - Resilience to traumatic stress in U.S. military veterans
T2 - Application of a novel classification approach in a nationally representative sample
AU - Overstreet, Cassie
AU - DeViva, Jason C.
AU - Amstadter, Ananda
AU - McCarthy, Elissa
AU - Southwick, Steven M.
AU - Pietrzak, Robert H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Resilience has been of particular interest to researchers and clinicians focused on response to trauma. In the current study, we employed a novel, discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience (DBPR) analytic approach to operationalizing resilience and examined its relation to potentially protective psychosocial factors in a nationally representative sample of U.S. veterans (N = 2704). Cumulative lifetime trauma burden, severity of PTSD symptoms, and protective factors such as personality characteristics (e.g., conscientiousness), protective psychosocial characteristics (e.g., purpose in life), and social connectedness (e.g., secure attachment style) were assessed. PTSD Checklist (PCL) scores were regressed onto cumulative trauma burden for the entire sample and a predicted PCL score was generated for each veteran. Resilience was operationalized as a lower actual relative to predicted PCL score. Results of a relative importance analysis revealed that somatic symptoms (22.5% relative variance explained [RVE]), emotional stability (22.4% RVE), and a secure attachment style (14.1%) explained the majority of the variance in resilience scores. These results demonstrate the utility of a DBPR approach to operationalizing resilience in U.S. military veterans. They also identify potentially modifiable psychosocial factors that may be bolstered in prevention and treatment efforts designed to mitigate the negative effects of trauma and promote resilience in this population.
AB - Resilience has been of particular interest to researchers and clinicians focused on response to trauma. In the current study, we employed a novel, discrepancy-based psychiatric resilience (DBPR) analytic approach to operationalizing resilience and examined its relation to potentially protective psychosocial factors in a nationally representative sample of U.S. veterans (N = 2704). Cumulative lifetime trauma burden, severity of PTSD symptoms, and protective factors such as personality characteristics (e.g., conscientiousness), protective psychosocial characteristics (e.g., purpose in life), and social connectedness (e.g., secure attachment style) were assessed. PTSD Checklist (PCL) scores were regressed onto cumulative trauma burden for the entire sample and a predicted PCL score was generated for each veteran. Resilience was operationalized as a lower actual relative to predicted PCL score. Results of a relative importance analysis revealed that somatic symptoms (22.5% relative variance explained [RVE]), emotional stability (22.4% RVE), and a secure attachment style (14.1%) explained the majority of the variance in resilience scores. These results demonstrate the utility of a DBPR approach to operationalizing resilience in U.S. military veterans. They also identify potentially modifiable psychosocial factors that may be bolstered in prevention and treatment efforts designed to mitigate the negative effects of trauma and promote resilience in this population.
KW - Posttraumatic stress disorder
KW - Resilience
KW - Trauma-load
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107620943&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.06.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 34126424
AN - SCOPUS:85107620943
SN - 0022-3956
VL - 140
SP - 301
EP - 307
JO - Journal of Psychiatric Research
JF - Journal of Psychiatric Research
ER -