Browsing by Subject "Veteran"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    American Indian Vietnam combat veterans: how out-of-home placement and having a veteran primary care giver are associated with features and symptoms of trauma.
    (2008-12) Yaekel-Black Elk, Julie Kay
    It was the purpose of this study to examine the relationships among American Indian Vietnam combat veterans' childhood experiences: extra-cultural placement and having a veteran primary care giver, and features and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Participants were 150 American Indian Vietnam combat veterans from the Midwest. This study examined scores from two dependent measures: Traumatic Attachment Belief Scale (TABS) and the Mississippi Combat PTSD Scale-Short Form (M-PTSD Short Form). The two independent measures were: veterans who experienced extra-cultural placement or those who did not experience extra-cultural placement, and veterans who had a veteran primary care giver as a child or who did not have a veteran primary care giver as a child. Research findings indicated that veterans who experienced extra-cultural placement were significantly more likely to have experienced incarceration and homelessness. There were no significant differences in alcohol and drug treatment between those who had experienced extra-cultural placement and those who had not. There were no significant differences found if participants had a veteran primary care giver or not in homelessness or treatment for alcohol or drug abuse. Those who had a veteran primary care giver were found to be significantly more likely to experience incarceration than those who did not. Research findings also showed that participants who experienced actual or threatened homelessness were also more likely to experience incarceration and alcohol or drug treatment. The impact of trauma on beliefs about others' safety was significantly greater than the impact of trauma on beliefs about self-safety, trust of others or of self-esteem toward others or toward self, and of intimacy with self or others. Other differences in these constructs were found. Significant differences were not found in the impact of trauma on features and symptoms of PTSD as a function of the absence of extra-cultural placement or extra-cultural placement or having a non-veteran or veteran primary care giver. Finally, there were significant associations between the impact of trauma on beliefs about self and others, features and symptoms of PTSD, no extra-cultural placement/extra-cultural placement, and having a non veteran or veteran primary care giver.
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    Privileged moves: migration, race and veteran status in post-World War II America.
    (2009-03) Hall, Patricia Kelly
    Internal migration--the redistribution of a country's people--is the spatial response of a population to demographic, economic, and social change. Sometimes change is so swift and intense in all these areas that it reshapes the national landscape. World War II was one of these galvanizing periods. During this major restructuring of the U.S. economy, black migration reached a historic high, white migration increased substantially following a half-century of decline, and second generation immigrants moved beyond the industrial core. By examining differences in these migration patterns, this study adds to our understanding of the social dynamics of the post-war period and fills the gap between two bodies of scholarly literature that could--but have not yet--been in conversation. One body of research locates origins of contemporary economic behavior and social inclusion in the World War II era. Some authors focus on the G.I. Bill and civic inclusion, others on the post-war clash of racial and ethnic groups in specific communities. This research largely ignores migration, analyzing populations where they are found after the war. Similarly, despite renewed scholarly interest in the migration of racial and ethnic groups in the United States, virtually no attention has been paid to the post-World War II period or to veteran status as a selective factor. To draw these scholarly threads together, I traced the evolution of veteran status as a predictor of internal migration prior to World War II. I then explored the influence of veteran status on post-war migration of three populations: whites with native-born parents, whites with foreign-born parents, and blacks. Using census microdata from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), I tracked migration levels and destinations to evaluate the extent to which each group was incorporated into the post-war economic and social order. Higher rates of internal migration were found for veterans but veteran status did not trump existing social hierarchies. Veteran gain to migration varied relative to the group's place in the pre-war social order. Thus social distance between whites with native-born and foreign-born parents was reduced in the post-war years, while that between whites and blacks increased.
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    Yoga for chronic pain in veterans: A mixed methods study
    (2018-05) Donaldson, Melvin
    Yoga is an increasingly common practice used in the management of chronic pain, largely due to its safety and demonstrated effectiveness as an adjunctive treatment. There are important challenges to understanding the effect of yoga on chronic pain, notably yoga is rarely used in isolation and the specific content of yoga interventions varies widely between studies. Additionally, yoga and complementary practices in general are under-described in veteran populations even though veterans are more highly engaged with complementary practices than civilians. This dissertation seeks to inform the evidence base of veterans who practice yoga in three ways. First, I estimate the cross-sectional association between yoga practice and disability among veterans with pain using propensity score-matching. Yoga practice is not associated with a difference in prevalence of disability. Second, I identify differences in yoga practice between veterans with chronic pain and veterans without chronic pain. A mixed methods approach is employed with a qualitative strand that builds upon the quantitative strand to explain the differences observed. This analysis shows that yoga practitioners with chronic pain are regularly using self-directed practices more frequently than yoga practitioners without chronic pain. Interviews with study participants identify convenience as a facilitator of self-directed practice and feeling self-conscious as a barrier to instructor-led group practice among practitioners with chronic pain. Finally, I describe patterns of use of 19 different non-pharmacological health approaches among all members of the sample to show how modalities are being used in integrated ways. This dissertation makes several important contributions. I piloted of a self-report instrument for describing yoga practice, the Essential Properties of Yoga Questionnaire, and a self-report instrument of use of non-pharmacologic therapies, the Health Practices Inventory. Both instruments are ready for use by others. Also, I provide a detailed description of how veterans with pain are using and experiencing yoga.