title: Violations of war: testing the meaning-making model among Vietnam veterans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Posttrauma adjustment theories postulate that intense stressors violate people's beliefs about the world and perceived ability to achieve valued goals. Failure to make meaning from traumatic events exacerbates negative adjustment (e.g., PTSD), whereas success facilitates positive adjustment (e.g., stress-related growth). The current study aimed to test this model of direct and indirect effects among a sample of veterans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Vietnam veterans (N = 130) completed assessment measures in an online survey format. Participants were largely male (91%) and Caucasian (93%) with a mean age of 61 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results supported basic model tenets, linking military stress severity to violations of beliefs and goals. In the final model, only goal violations carried indirect effects of severity on PTSD symptoms. Presence of and search for meaning carried a portion of the indirect effects between goal violations and both PTSD and stress-related growth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings suggest that traumatic stress may disrupt people's goals and meaning-making may center on these disruptions.
authors.affiliation: Colorado State University; North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Steger
authors.forename: Gina P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Owens
authors.forename: Crystal L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D047829:Vietnam Conflict; D014857:Warfare
keywords: PTSD; meaning; military stress; stress-related growth; trauma