title: Anger and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in a Trauma-Exposed Military Population: Differences by Trauma Context and Gender.
abstract: Studies have found a stronger association between anger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity in military populations than in nonmilitary populations. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this difference: Military populations are more prone to anger than nonmilitary populations, and traumas experienced on deployment create more anger than nondeployment traumas. To examine these hypotheses, we evaluated the association between anger and PTSD severity among never-deployed military service members with nondeployment traumas (n = 226) and deployed service members with deployment traumas (n = 594) using linear regression. We further examined these associations stratified by gender. Bivariate associations between anger and PTSD severity were similar for nondeployment and deployment events; however, gender modified this association. For men, the association for deployment events was stronger than for nondeployment events (β = .18, r = .53 vs. β = .16, r = .37, respectively), whereas the reverse was true for women (deployment: β = .20, r = .42 vs. nondeployment: β = .25, r = .65). Among men, findings supported the hypothesis that deployment traumas produce stronger associations between PTSD and anger and are inconsistent with hypothesized population differences. In women, however, there was not a clear fit with either hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science and Recreation, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA.
authors.forename: Miranda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Worthen
authors.affiliation: Global Mental Health Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sujit D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Rathod
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University, School of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ursano
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University, School of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gifford
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University, School of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fullerton
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galea
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ahern
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000786:Anger; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D014857:Warfare; D055815:Young Adult