Investigating Identity and Social Support Among Veterans Transitioning to Civilian Life: A Mixed Methods Study
2018-05
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Investigating Identity and Social Support Among Veterans Transitioning to Civilian Life: A Mixed Methods Study
Authors
Published Date
2018-05
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
Eriksonian perspectives on identity development assert that identity integration, or a sense of coherence and continuity of the self, is a fundamental prerequisite for psychological well-being (Erikson, 1968; Syed & McLean, 2016; van Hoof & Raaijmakers, 2003). However, the overwhelming majority of research and theory on identity integration focuses only on adolescents and young adults under age 30 (e.g., Crocetti, Beyers, & Cok, 2016; Marcia, 1966; Schwartz et al., 2015; Sedikides, Wildschut, & Grouzet, 2018). Research on identity development in adulthood is lacking, and relatively little is known about how identity adjusts to changes later in life. The purpose of the present study was to investigate identity disruption as a construct for conceptualizing identity change in adulthood, by a) describing and operationalizing identity disruption, b) examining its relations with psychosocial outcomes relevant to veterans’ adjustment, and c) determining whether any associations between identity disruption and outcomes of interest persist when controlling for participants’ expressed mental-health concerns and context changes. Taking a mixed-methods approach, I used data from an expressive writing intervention conducted with veterans reintegrating back into civilian life. At baseline, three months, and six months after enrolling in the study, 244 veterans completed measures of social support, PTSD symptom severity, satisfaction with life, and reintegration difficulty. They also responded to an open-ended expressive writing prompt four times within the ten days following their baseline measurement. The qualitative data were coded using thematic analysis methods (Braun & Clarke, 2006), and codes were used to generate quantitative variables capturing identity disruption, context change and continuity, and expressed mental health concerns, among other variables. These variables were then used as predictors in latent growth curve models to test for differences in social support and mental-health trajectories for individuals who reported identity disruption versus those did not. Qualitative analysis revealed four types of identity disruption: feelings of loss of meaning and purpose; disconnection between one’s past, present, and future selves; role dysfunction; and loss of self-worth. Veterans reporting identity disruption were younger on average (M = 37.31) than those not reporting identity disruption (M = 40.24). Quantitative analyses did not support the hypothesis that identity disruption would result in poorer social support and mental-health outcomes. Rather, positive and negative context changes, positive context continuity, and expressed mental-health concerns were significantly associated with mental-health outcomes and social-support trajectories. Post-hoc analyses suggested that identity disruption was significantly associated with “lack of structure,” a dimension of context change capturing broad cultural differences related to a lack of structure and predictability in civilian compared to military life. Recommendations for future research on the construct of identity disruption are discussed, including recommendations to develop a reliable quantitative measure of identity disruption, and to design studies that measure identity disruption before, during, and after the disruptive event in order to test the causal relations among life events, identity disruption, and psychosocial outcomes.
Keywords
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2018. Major: Psychology. Advisor: Moin Syed. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 175 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Mitchell, Lauren. (2018). Investigating Identity and Social Support Among Veterans Transitioning to Civilian Life: A Mixed Methods Study. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/199037.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.