https://aub.ie/MilitaryREACH-ParkTRIP2021

Park, C. L., Sacco, S. J., Kraus, S. W., Mazure, C. M., & Hoff, R. A. (2021). Influences of religiousness/spirituality on mental and physical health in OEF/OIF/OND military veterans varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 138, 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.034

Using a sample of 410 Veterans, this study examined the associations between 4 elements of religiousness/spirituality (hereafter R/S; including R/S coping, struggle, organized practice, and prayer) and changes in well-being (e.g., mental and physical quality of life, psychological stress, anxiety and insomnia symptoms) over time. Data were collected at baseline and 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. Overall, baseline struggles with R/S were the most prominent predictor of changes in Veterans’ well-being. Veterans who reported more R/S struggles at baseline tended to report an increase in psychological stress and a decrease in physical quality of life over time after accounting for relevant demographics (e.g., sex, race, ethnicity). Differences by gender, race, and ethnicity also showed the complex influences of Veterans’ R/S on their changes in well-being.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.034

Mental health
Physical health
Veterans

Multiple branches

Veteran

Veteran

Young adulthood (18 - 29 yrs)
Adulthood (18 yrs & older)
Thirties (30 - 39 yrs)
Middle age (40 - 64 yrs)

Quantitative Study
Longitudinal Study

Park, Crystal L., Sacco, Shane J., Kraus, Shane W., Mazure, Carolyn M., Hoff, Rani A.

Background Religiousness/spirituality (R/S) has been associated with greater mental wellbeing in US military veterans, but this work has been conducted primarily with older veterans, cross-sectionally, using a constrained set of R/S and mental health constructs, and lacking consideration of the influence of sex and race/ethnicity. Further, few studies have focused on associations of R/S with veterans’ physical health. Method We investigated the relationship of R/S to mental and physical health in a sample of 410 Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation New Dawn veterans within five years of military separation and one year later. Results In the full sample, R/S coping, R/S organized practices and private prayer minimally related to mental or physical wellbeing, yet R/S struggle related inversely to concurrent and subsequent mental and physical health. For women only, higher baseline organized R/S was associated with lower subsequent stress, anxiety, and insomnia. For men only, baseline R/S coping predicted subsequent poorer physical quality of life and baseline R/S struggle predicted subsequent increased pain. For minority race but not white veterans, higher baseline private prayer predicted increased current pain level at 12 months; for Latinx ethnicity only, higher baseline R/S coping predicted increased quality of life a year later and higher baseline R/S struggle predicted higher subsequent levels of anxiety. Conclusions R/S, broadly conceptualized, may relate to wellbeing in military veterans in different ways depending on sex and race/ethnicity, with implications for the role of R/S and R/S struggle in personalizing mental and physical health services.

Elsevier

Article
REACH Publication

University of Connecticut, Department of Psychological Sciences, CLP
University of Connecticut, Department of Allied Health Sciences, SJS
Women's Health Research at Yale, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, CMM
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Department of Psychology, SWK
Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC), VA Connecticut Healthcare System, RAH