Dispositional optimism buffers combat veterans from the negative effects of warzone stress on mental health symptoms and work impairment

Jeffrey L. Thomas · Thomas W. Britt · Heather N. Odle‐Dusseau · Paul D. Bliese

83 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Clinical Psychology

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Optimism, Hope, and Well-being Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research COVID-19 and Mental Health

Abstract

The study examined dispositional optimism s role in buffering the effect of warzone stress on mental health symptoms and mental health symptoms on work impairment. A total of 2,439 soldiers from an active-duty brigade combat team were surveyed following a 12-month deployment to Iraq. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression symptoms, combat exposure, deployment demands, and work impairment were measured. Soldiers higher in dispositional optimism showed weaker relationships between combat exposure and PTSD symptoms, and between deployment demands and PTSD and depression symptoms. Dispositional optimism also buffered mental health symptom effects on work impairment. Dispositional optimism may protect soldiers from warzone stress and mental health symptoms. Potential mechanisms explaining how dispositional optimism may serve as a protective factor are discussed.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 83 citations exist upstream.

References

2022Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 1999Validation and Utility of a Self-report Version of PRIME-MD The PHQ Primary Care Study 1994Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test.1996The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma 2004Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events?2004Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care 1992Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being: Theoretical overview and empirical update 2007Longitudinal Assessment of Mental Health Problems Among Active and Reserve Component Soldiers Returning From the Iraq War

Cited by

2012The role of personality traits in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).2014Intrapersonal Resilience Moderates the Association Between Exposure-Severity and PTSD Symptoms Among Civilians Exposed to the 2014 Israel–Gaza Conflict 2015Secondary trauma among social workers treating trauma clients: The role of coping strategies and internal resources 2016Bidirectional associations between hope, optimism and social support, and trauma-related symptoms among survivors of terrorism and their spouses

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.