A Scheme for Categorizing Traumatic Military Events

A common assumption among clinicians and researchers is that war trauma primarily involves fear-based reactions to life-threatening situations. However, the authors believe that there are multiple types of trauma in the military context, each with unique perievent and postevent response patterns. To...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavior modification 2012-11, Vol.36 (6), p.787-807
Main Authors: Stein, Nathan R., Mills, Mary Alice, Arditte, Kimberly, Mendoza, Crystal, Borah, Adam M., Resick, Patricia A., Litz, Brett T., Belinfante, Kenneth, Borah, Elisa V., Cooney, John A., Foa, Edna B., Hembree, Elizabeth A., Kippie, Amber, Lester, Kathleen, Malach, Steffany L., McClure, Jennifer, Peterson, Alan L., Vargas, Veronica, Wright, Edward
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anxiety
Behavior modification
Classification
Coding
Combat Disorders - complications
Combat Disorders - diagnosis
Combat Disorders - physiopathology
Construct Validity
Fear
Fear & phobias
Grief
Humans
Hypothesis Testing
Injuries
Interrater Reliability
Interview, Psychological - methods
Interviews
Life Change Events
Military Personnel - psychology
Negative Attitudes
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Sexual Abuse
Single-Blind Method
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - complications
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - physiopathology
Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
Trauma
United States
Validity
Violence
War
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Summary:A common assumption among clinicians and researchers is that war trauma primarily involves fear-based reactions to life-threatening situations. However, the authors believe that there are multiple types of trauma in the military context, each with unique perievent and postevent response patterns. To test this hypothesis, they reviewed structured clinical interviews of 122 active duty service members and assigned the reported index (principal, most currently distressing) events to one or more of the following categories: Life Threat to Self, Life Threat to Others, Aftermath of Violence, Traumatic Loss, Moral Injury by Self, and Moral Injury by Others. They found high interrater reliability for the coding scheme and support for the construct validity of the categorizations. In addition, they discovered that certain categories were related to psychiatric symptoms (e.g., reexperiencing of the traumatic event, guilt, anger) and negative thoughts about the world. Their study provides tentative support for use of these event categories.
ISSN:0145-4455
1552-4167
DOI:10.1177/0145445512446945