Positive tertiary appraisals and posttraumatic stress disorder in U.S. male veterans of the war in Vietnam: the roles of positive affirmation, positive reformulation, and defensive denial.
A 70.9% majority of the U.S. male veterans in a nationwide sample appraised the impact of their service in Vietnam on their present lives as mainly positive. A substantial minority, 41.7%, judged the effects to be highly salient. With controls on level of exposure to war-zone stressors measured with data from military records, the valence and salience of these appraisals are investigated in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other indicators of wartime and postwar functioning. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that mainly positive tertiary appraisals are affirmations of successful wartime and postwar adaptation rather than defensive denials related to maladaptive outcomes. The possibility that mainly positive tertiary appraisals also contribute to successful postwar adaptation is discussed.
Dohrenwend
Bruce P
BP
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. dohrenw@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
Neria
Yuval
Y
Turner
J Blake
JB
Turse
Nicholas
N
Marshall
Randall
R
Lewis-Fernandez
Roberto
R
Koenen
Karestan C
KC
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D014744:Vietnam; D014857:Warfare