Families Facing the Demands of Military Life: New Research Directions

Military families, whether Active-duty, Reserve, or National Guard, face a multitude of demands in times of both peace and war, and these demands will shift throughout a Servicemember’s career. Our research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), as well as research done at other institutions, has shown that the demands experienced by military families have both negative and positive effects in terms of health, marital satisfaction, and satisfaction with the Army. Appraisal of these demands and the ability to obtain the necessary resources to deal with them are important determinants of a variety of well-being–, family-, and Army-related outcomes. This chapter will focus on the findings of family studies conducted by researchers at WRAIR and examine the road ahead with studying military families based on the outcomes discussed

Exploring U.S. Veterans’ post-service employment experiences

© 2018, © 2018 Society for Military Psychology, Division 19 of the American Psychological Association. Although most U.S. veterans transition to civilian life successfully, securing employment and reintegrating into civilian communities, some veterans face transition challenges that can lead to or exacerbate mental and physical health problems. Emerging research from a survey conducted by Prudential indicates that difficulty transitioning to civilian life is largely attributable to employment (Prudential, 2012). This study sought to understand veterans’ employment experiences. Four focus groups (n=33) with pre- and post-9/11 veterans who at the time were accessing housing and employment support services were conducted. Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts led to the emergence of 2 master themes: (a) organizational and societal barriers, such as limited availability of transition programs, discharge type, negative experiences of support services, and perceived discrimination; and (b) personal barriers, such as lack of initiative to plan and difficulty adjusting to working with civilians. Since data was collected for this study, updates to TAP have been implemented; this may have alleviated some of the reported barriers. The role of veterans’ personal characteristics in employment requires attention in the context of agency, initiative, identity, and cultural adjustment. Policy, programmatic, practice, and future research recommendations are made

The State of the American Veteran: The Chicagoland Veterans Study

The State of the American Veteran: The Chicagoland Veterans Study, conducted by the University of Southern California (USC) School of Social Work Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) and in partnership with Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, is an effort to provide data-driven recommendations for serving the large population of veterans residing in Chicago and the surrounding area. Service members encounter a series of needs as they transition out of the military. These include securing employment and housing, addressing physical or mental health issues and adjusting to civilian culture. The ease through which this transition is made has a profound impact on post-service well-being. In an effort to examine how Chicagoland veterans have managed this transition as well as the current state of their overall needs, the Chicagoland Veterans Study surveyed 1,294 veterans living in Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will counties. In addition, focus group interviews were conducted to supplement the findings from the survey. The findings from the current study closely mirror those observed from similar studies conducted in Southern California in Los Angeles and Orange counties (Castro, Kintzle, & Hassan, 2014). That many findings and recommendations are similar across cities and states is critically important as it indicates a national veteran transition effort is needed and that veteran transition is not just an issue for a single city or state. Further, commonalities across cities and states indicate a broader systemic issue, which will require systemwide changes

Acceptance matters:Disengagement and attrition among LGBT personnel in the U.S. Military

Introduction: The U.S. military has undergone profound changes in its policies toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) service members (SMs) over the past decade. Although emerging evidence indicates that some LGBT SMs perceive their co-workers as supportive, a sizable group report continued victimization, harassment, and fear of disclosing their LGBT identity. Because employee perception of cohesion and belonging affects retention in the workplace, such discrimination is likely to affect retention of LGBT military personnel. Methods: Survey data come from a study funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (2017-2018) and completed by 544 active-duty SMs (non-LGBT n = 296; LGBT n = 248). Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine military career intentions among SMs according to socio-demographics, perceived acceptance, and unit climate. Results: One in 3 transgender SMs plan to leave the military upon completion of their service commitment, compared with 1 in 5 cisgender LGB SMs and 1 in 8 non-LGBT SMs. LGBT SMs were twice as likely as non-LGBT SMs to be undecided about their military career path after controlling for confounding variables. Lower perceived LGBT acceptance was associated with a higher risk of attrition among LGBT SMs. Lower perceived unit cohesion was associated with attrition risk for all SMs. Discussion: These findings suggest that, although some LGBT SMs may feel accepted, the U.S. military could do more to improve its climate of acceptance to prevent attrition, especially for transgender SMs. Taking measures to prioritize unit cohesion would improve retention of qualified LGBT and non-LGBT SMs.</p

Veterans’ civilian employment experiences: Lessons learnt from focus groups

Emerging evidence highlights employment as a key factor influencing the success of transition from military to civilian life. Historically, employment programs have focused on improving skills such as resume writing and interview skills. However, it is likely that employment challenges are more than these practical barriers. Four focus groups with employed and unemployed Gulf War Era II veterans were conducted aimed at moving past a practical perspective by gaining experiential understandings of veterans’ employment. Thematic analysis indicated that the veterans’ employment experiences were best understood temporally in two master themes: pretransition and the divergent experiences of veterans who did and did not plan ahead and living the transition and the veterans’ experiences of employment barriers and facilitators. Further to the two master themes, an underlying thread of the need for self-determination was evident. Interpretation of the results led to the development of recommendations for policy, service provision, and future research

Honeybees Tolerate Cyanogenic Glucosides from Clover Nectar and Flowers.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) pollinate flowers and collect nectar from many important crops. White clover (Trifolium repens) is widely grown as a temperate forage crop, and requires honeybee pollination for seed set. In this study, using a quantitative LC-MS (Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) assay, we show that the cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and lotaustralin are present in the leaves, sepals, petals, anthers, and nectar of T. repens. Cyanogenic glucosides are generally thought to be defense compounds, releasing toxic hydrogen cyanide upon degradation. However, increasing evidence indicates that plant secondary metabolites found in nectar may protect pollinators from disease or predators. In a laboratory survival study with chronic feeding of secondary metabolites, we show that honeybees can ingest the cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and amygdalin at naturally occurring concentrations with no ill effects, even though they have enzyme activity towards degradation of cyanogenic glucosides. This suggests that honeybees can ingest and tolerate cyanogenic glucosides from flower nectar. Honeybees retain only a portion of ingested cyanogenic glucosides. Whether they detoxify the rest using rhodanese or deposit them in the hive should be the focus of further research

The unexpected resurgence of Weyl geometry in late 20-th century physics

Weyl's original scale geometry of 1918 ("purely infinitesimal geometry") was withdrawn by its author from physical theorizing in the early 1920s. It had a comeback in the last third of the 20th century in different contexts: scalar tensor theories of gravity, foundations of gravity, foundations of quantum mechanics, elementary particle physics, and cosmology. It seems that Weyl geometry continues to offer an open research potential for the foundations of physics even after the turn to the new millennium.Comment: Completely rewritten conference paper 'Beyond Einstein', Mainz Sep 2008. Preprint ELHC (Epistemology of the LHC) 2017-02, 92 pages, 1 figur