IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v74y2012i4p537-545.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women at war: Understanding how women veterans cope with combat and military sexual trauma

Author

Listed:
  • Mattocks, Kristin M.
  • Haskell, Sally G.
  • Krebs, Erin E.
  • Justice, Amy C.
  • Yano, Elizabeth M.
  • Brandt, Cynthia

Abstract

The wars in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF) have engendered a growing population of US female veterans, with women now comprising 15% of active US duty military personnel. Women serving in the military come under direct fire and experience combat-related injuries and trauma, and are also often subject to in-service sexual assaults and sexual harassment. However, little is known regarding how women veterans cope with these combat and military sexual trauma experiences once they return from deployment. To better understand their experiences, we conducted semi-structured interviews with nineteen OEF/OIF women veterans between January–November 2009. Women veterans identified stressful military experiences and post-deployment reintegration problems as major stressors. Stressful military experiences included combat experiences, military sexual trauma, and separation from family. Women had varying abilities to address and manage stressors, and employed various cognitive and behavioral coping resources and processes to manage their stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Mattocks, Kristin M. & Haskell, Sally G. & Krebs, Erin E. & Justice, Amy C. & Yano, Elizabeth M. & Brandt, Cynthia, 2012. "Women at war: Understanding how women veterans cope with combat and military sexual trauma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 537-545.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:4:p:537-545
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611006952
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seal, K.H. & Metzler, T.J. & Gima, K.S. & Bertenthal, D. & Maguen, S. & Marmar, C.R., 2009. "Trends and risk factors for mental health diagnoses among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using department of Veterans Affairs Health Care, 2002-2008," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(9), pages 1651-1658.
    2. Linos, Natalia, 2009. "Rethinking gender-based violence during war: Is violence against civilian men a problem worth addressing?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1548-1551, April.
    3. Kimerling, R. & Gima, K. & Smith, M.W. & Street, A. & Frayne, S., 2007. "The Veterans Health Administration and military sexual trauma," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(12), pages 2160-2166.
    4. Kimerling, R. & Street, A.E. & Pavao, J. & Smit, M.W. & Cronkite, R.C. & Holmes, T.H. & Frayne, S.M., 2010. "Military-related sexual trauma among veterans health administration patients returning from Afghanistan and Iraq," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(8), pages 1409-1412.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Randall Nedegaard & Jana Zwilling, 2017. "Promoting Military Cultural Competence among Civilian Care Providers: Learning through Program Development," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, February.
    2. Nicholas J. Beutell & Marianne M. O’Hare & Joy A. Schneer & Jeffrey W. Alstete, 2017. "Coping with Fear of and Exposure to Terrorism among Expatriates," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Tolhurst, Rachel & Leach, Beryl & Price, Janet & Robinson, Jude & Ettore, Elizabeth & Scott-Samuel, Alex & Kilonzo, Nduku & Sabuni, Louis P. & Robertson, Steve & Kapilashrami, Anuj & Bristow, Katie & , 2012. "Intersectionality and gender mainstreaming in international health: Using a feminist participatory action research process to analyse voices and debates from the global south and north," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1825-1832.
    4. Vinck, Patrick & Pham, Phuong N., 2013. "Association of exposure to intimate-partner physical violence and potentially traumatic war-related events with mental health in Liberia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 41-49.
    5. Ryan D. Edwards, 2010. "A Review of War Costs in Iraq and Afghanistan," NBER Working Papers 16163, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Megan E. Sienkiewicz & Aneline Amalathas & Katherine M. Iverson & Brian N. Smith & Karen S. Mitchell, 2020. "Examining the Association between Trauma Exposure and Work-Related Outcomes in Women Veterans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Blay-Tofey, Morkeh & Lee, Bandy X., 2015. "Preventing gender-based violence engendered by conflict: The case of Côte d'Ivoire," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 341-347.
    8. Rui Zhen & Xiao Zhou & Xinchun Wu, 2019. "Patterns of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression Among Adolescents Following an Earthquake: a Latent Profile Analysis," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(6), pages 2173-2187, December.
    9. Ming-Ching Hsu, 2023. "The Construction of Critical Factors for Successfully Introducing Chatbots into Mental Health Services in the Army: Using a Hybrid MCDM Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    10. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem & Hussain Gholami, 2019. "Working in a Physically Dangerous Work Environment: Employee Vitality and Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-20, September.
    11. Richard Traunmüller & Sara Kijewski & Markus Freitag, 2019. "The Silent Victims of Sexual Violence during War: Evidence from a List Experiment in Sri Lanka," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(9), pages 2015-2042, October.
    12. Sean Cowlishaw & Isabella Freijah & Dzenana Kartal & Alyssa Sbisa & Ashlee Mulligan & MaryAnn Notarianni & Anne-Laure Couineau & David Forbes & Meaghan O’Donnell & Andrea Phelps & Katherine M. Iverson, 2022. "Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Military and Veteran Populations: A Systematic Review of Population-Based Surveys and Population Screening Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-23, July.
    13. William R. Marchand, 2023. "Potential Mechanisms of Action and Outcomes of Equine-Assisted Services for Veterans with a History of Trauma: A Narrative Review of the Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-34, July.
    14. Elizabeth L. Hillman, 2009. "Front and Center: Sexual Violence in U.S. Military Law," Politics & Society, , vol. 37(1), pages 101-129, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:4:p:537-545. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.