ERIC Number: EJ1271696
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Nov
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Identity Disruption and Its Association with Mental Health among Veterans with Reintegration Difficulty
Mitchell, Lauren L.; Frazier, Patricia A.; Sayer, Nina A.
Developmental Psychology, v56 n11 p2152-2166 Nov 2020
Most research and theory on identity integration focuses on adolescents and young adults under age 30, and relatively little is known about how identity adjusts to major life events later in life. The purpose of the present study was to operationalize and investigate "identity disruption," or a loss of temporal identity integration following a disruptive life event, within the developmental context of established adulthood and midlife. We used a mixed-methods approach to examine identity disruption among 244 Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with reintegration difficulty who participated in an expressive writing intervention. Participants completed measures of social support, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, satisfaction with life, and reintegration difficulty at baseline right before writing, and 3 and 6 months after the expressive writing intervention. The expressive writing samples were coded for identity disruption using thematic analysis. We hypothesized that identity disruption would be associated with lower social support, more severe PTSD symptoms, lower satisfaction with life, and greater reintegration difficulty at baseline. Forty-nine percent (n = 121) of the sample indicated identity disruption in their writing samples. Identity disruption was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms, lower satisfaction with life, and greater reintegration difficulty at baseline, and with less improvement in social support. The findings suggest that identity disruption is a meaningful construct for extending the study of identity development to established adult and midlife populations, and for understanding veterans' adjustment to civilian life.
Descriptors: Identification (Psychology), Mental Health, Veterans, Adjustment (to Environment), Intervention, Social Support Groups, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Life Satisfaction, Writing (Composition), Therapy, Adult Development, Self Concept
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: US Department of Defense; US Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 0820045; DHI07150
Author Affiliations: N/A