Men

Citation:

Murdoch, Maureen, John B. Pryor, Melissa A. Polusny, and Gary D. Gackstetter. 2007. "Functioning and Psychiatric Symptoms among Military Men and Women Exposed to Sexual Stressors." Military Medicine 172 (7): 718-725.

Authors: Maureen Murdoch, John B. Pryor, Melissa A. Polusny, Gary D. Gackstetter

Abstract:

Objective: The goal was to describe military men's and women's functioning and psychiatric symptoms according to their military sexual stressor exposure. 

Method: A cross-sectional survey of 204 Army soldiers and 611 other active duty troops (487 men and 327 women) was performed. 

Results: Forty-five percent of men and 80% of women reported at least one sexual stressor type (i.e., sexual identity challenges, sexual harassment, or sexual assault). After adjustment, subjects reporting more types of sexual stressors had poorer physical, work, role, and social functioning; more-severe post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety symptoms; and more somatic concerns, compared with subjects reporting fewer or no sexual stressor types (all p < 0.004). Interactions by gender were insignificant (all p > 0.11). Within sexual stressor category, men and women reported similar mean adjusted functioning and psychiatric symptoms. 

Conclusions: For both men and women, impaired functioning and more severe psychiatric symptoms were more common among those reporting more types of sexual stressors.

Keywords: sexual assault, mental health, female soldiers, male soldiers, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2007

Citation:

Miller, Kenneth E., Patricia Omidian, Andrew Rasmussen, Aziz Yaqubi, Haqmal Daudzai. 2008. "Daily Stressors, War Experiences, and Mental Health in Afghanistan." Transcultural Psychiatry 45 (4): 611-38.

Authors: Kenneth E. Miller, Patricia Omidian, Andrew Rasmussen, Aziz Yaqubi, Haqmal Duadzai

Abstract:

Working in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, the authors assessed the relative contribution of daily stressors and war-related experiences of violence and loss to levels of depression, PTSD, impaired functioning, and a culturally specific measure of general psychological distress. For women, daily stressors were a better predictor than war experiences of all mental health outcomes except for PTSD; for men, daily stressors were a better predictor of depression and functional impairment, while war experiences and daily stressors were similarly predictive of general distress. For men, daily stressors moderated the relationship between war experiences and PTSD, which was significant only under conditions of low daily stress. The study's implications for research and intervention in conflict and post-conflict settings are considered. 

Keywords: mental health, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, trauma, male civilians, female civilians

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2008

Citation:

Maguen, Shira, Beth Cohen, Greg Cohen, Erin Madden, Daniel Bertenthal, and Karen Seal. 2012. "Gender Differences in Health Service Utilization among Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." Journal of Women's Health 21(6): 666-673.

Authors: Shira Maguen, Beth Cohen, Greg Cohen, Erin Madden, Daniel Bertenthal, Karen Seal

Abstract:

Background: Little is known about gender differences in healthcare use among newly returning veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We investigated gender differences in Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center health service use among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD with and without comorbid depression and alcohol use disorders (AUD).

Methods: Using VA administrative data, bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to examine gender differences in health service use among 159,705 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans with PTSD seeking VA healthcare from October 7, 2001, to December 31, 2010.

Results: Female veterans with PTSD were more likely to be black and single and to have higher mental health, primary care, and emergency care use compared to men with PTSD. Men were more likely to have higher mental health inpatient use compared to women. Women and men with comorbid PTSD and depression or comorbid PTSD and AUD were more likely to have higher use in all domains compared to their counterparts with PTSD without these comorbid disorders. Women with comorbid PTSD and depression were 12.5 times more likely to have a mental health inpatient hospitalization compared to their female counterparts without depression and twice as likely to have a mental health hospitalization compared to men with comorbid PTSD and depression.

Conclusions: Women with PTSD had higher use than men in almost all areas, as did all veterans with comorbid PTSD and depression and comorbid PTSD and AUD, regardless of gender. Better understanding these health service use differences will allow for targeted evaluation and integrated treatment interventions in veterans with PTSD.

Keywords: female veterans, male veterans, posttraumatic stress disorder, mental health

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Military Forces & Armed Groups Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2012

Citation:

Magley, Vicki J., Craig R. Waldo, Fritz Drasgow, and Louise F. Fitzgerald. 1999. "The Impact of Sexual Harassment on Military Personnel: Is it the Same for Men and Women?" Military Psychology 11 (3): 283-302.

Authors: Vicki J. Magley, Craig R. Waldo, Fritz Drasgow, Louise F. Fitzgerald

Abstract:

Research in the civilian workplace has documented the serious psychological, health-related, and job-related outcomes of sexual harassment of women by men. The question of whether men experience sexual harassment similarly has more recently been proposed (Berdahl, Magley, & Waldo, 1996; Popovich, Campbell, Everton, Mangan, & Godinho, 1994; Vaux, 1993; Waldo, Berdahl, & Fitzgerald, 1998; Waldo & Magley, 1996), resulting in considerable debate regarding not only the extent of the outcomes of such experiences but also the sex of the offender. This study directly compared outcomes of sexual harassment for men and women utilizing data from the U.S. Department of Defense's (1995) recent gender issues survey. The results of both linear and quadratic regression analyses indicate that within the range of similar experiences, sexual harassment exerts a negative effect on male and female personnel in similar ways on 3 sets of outcomes: psychological, health, and job-related. Three differences emerged, however, suggesting differential experiences of sexual harassment for men and women. First, women were more likely to have been sexually harassed than were men. Second, women experienced sexual harassment at higher frequencies than did men; the negative impact on women, both individually and as a group, is thus considerably more pronounced. Finally, women almost always experienced sexual harassment from men; men were somewhat more likely to experience such behaviors from men than from women.

Keywords: military sexual assault, female soldiers, male soldiers, mental health

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, SV against Women Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 1999

Citation:

Hourani, Laurel L., and Huixing Yuan. 1999. "The Mental Health Status of Women in the Navy and Marine Corps: Preliminary Findings from the Perceptions of Wellness and Readiness Assessment." Military Medicine 164 (3): 174- 81.

Authors: Laurel L. Hourani, Huixing Yuan

Abstract:

Examined the most common adult psychiatric disorders of Navy and Marine Corps personnel and compared their military subpopulations. A population-based, multi-stage, cluster sample of 782 active duty Navy and Marine Corps females and males (aged 18–64 yrs) were administered a structured computerized telephone interview to make Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-Revised (DSM-III-R) psychiatric diagnoses. Results indicate that females had about 5 times the risk of experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than males and about twice the risk of a major depressive episode. Of all personnel meeting diagnostic criteria for an active mental disorder, only 19% sought mental health care in the last year. Females generally sought treatment more readily than males. (Abstract from PsycINFO)

Keywords: mental health, female soldiers, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 1999

Citation:

Fontana, Alan, Brett Litz, and Robert Rosenheck. 2000. "Impact of Combat and Sexual Harassment on the Severity of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Men and Women Peacekeepers in Somalia." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 188 (3): 163-169.

Authors: Alan Fontana, Brett Litz, Robert Rosenheck

Abstract:

The impact of combat and sexual harassment on the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is compared for 1307 men and 197 women peacekeepers who served in the same military units. A theoretical model was proposed to express the nature of the impact. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the model separately for men and women. Good-fitting, parsimonious models were developed that showed substantial similarity for men and women. For men, severity of PTSD symptoms was impacted by exposure to combat directly and indirectly through fear and sexual harassment. For women, severity of PTSD symptoms was impacted by combat indirectly through the same two influences, although the mechanisms involving fear and sexual harassment were somewhat different. For both genders, moreover, PTSD severity was impacted directly by exposure to the dying of the Somali people. These similarities suggest that in modern stressful overseas military missions, both genders may be susceptible to the same types of risk for the development of PTSD. The incidence and impact of sexual harassment is particularly noteworthy in the case of men and calls for more detailed investigation in future studies.

Keywords: sexual assault, posttraumatic stress disorder, peacekeepers

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Somalia

Year: 2000

Citation:

Crouthamel, Jason. 2008. "Male Sexuality and Psychological Trauma: Soldiers and Sexual Disorder in World War I and Weimar Germany." Journal of the History of Sexuality 17 (1): 60-84.

Author: Jason Crouthamel

Keywords: masculinity, trauma, mental health, male soldiers

Topics: Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexuality Regions: Europe Countries: Germany

Year: 2008

Citation:

Chung, Rita C., Fred Bemak, and Marjorie Kagawa-Singer. 1998. "Gender Differences in Psychological Distress among Southeast Asian Refugees." Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 186 (2): 112-119.

Authors: Rita C. Chung, Fred Bemak, Marjorie Kagawa-Singer

Abstract:

The focus of this study was to examine gender differences in levels and predictors of psychological distress in a community sample of Southeast Asian refugees. Although previous studies with clinical samples of Southeast Asian refugees have found gender differences in the degree of psychological distress, the few community-based studies have been inconclusive. This community study found that there were gender differences in the predictors of distress and that refugee women reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress than their male counterparts. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: trauma, female refugees, male refugees, mental health

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, Trauma Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia

Year: 1998

Citation:

Baker, Ahmad M.,  and Nadera S. Kevorkian. 1995. "Differential Effects of Trauma on Spouses of Traumatized Households." Journal of Traumatic Stress 8 (1): 61-74.

Authors: Ahmad M. Baker, Nadera S. Kevorkian

Abstract:

The responses of 60 households subjected to varying degrees of traumatic events were examined. Specific attention was given to the differential effect that traumatic events have on spouses, especially in terms of general anxiety, state anxiety, trait anxiety, depression, and other symptoms related to trauma. The findings showed that degree of traumatization was proportional to number and intensity of stress related symptoms. Mothers, however, manifested depression and anxiety levels twice as high as fathers. The validity of these results was discussed in terms of cultural beliefs and practices.

Keywords: family, mental health, anxiety, depression, trauma

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, Trauma Regions: Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 1995

Citation:

Adler, Amy B., Ann H. Huffman, Paul D. Bliese, and Carl A. Castro. 2005. "The Impact of Deployment Length and Experience on the Well-Being of Male and Female Soldiers." Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 10 (2): 121-137.

Authors: Amy B. Adler, Ann H. Huffman, Paul D. Bliese, Carl A. Castro

Abstract:

This study examined the effects of stressor duration (deployment length) and stressor novelty (no prior deployment experience) on the psychological health of male and female military personnel returning from a peacekeeping deployment. The sample consisted of men (n = 2,114) and women (n= 1,225) surveyed for symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. The results confirmed the hypotheses. Longer deployments and 1st-time deployments were associated with an increase in distress scores. However, the relationship between deployment length and increased distress was found only for male soldiers. The findings demonstrate the importance of considering the impact of exposure to long-term occupational stressors and confirm, in part, previous research that has demonstrated a different stress response pattern for men and women.

Keywords: male soldiers, female soldiers, mental health, peacekeeping

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Men, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005