title: Resilience during war: Better unit cohesion and reductions in avoidant coping are associated with better mental health function after combat deployment.
abstract: The majority of individuals who endure traumatic events are resilient; however, we do not yet understand why some individuals are more resilient than others. We used data from a prospective longitudinal study Army National Guard and Reserve personnel to examine how unit cohesion (military-specific social support) and avoidant coping relate to resilience over the first year after return from deployment.
  
  
  
  Soldiers (N = 767) were assessed at 4 phases: predeployment (P1), immediately postdeployment (P2), 3 months' postdeployment (P3), and 1-year postdeployment (P4).
  
  
  
  After controlling for predeployment avoidant coping and overall social support, higher unit cohesion was associated with a reduction in avoidant coping (from P1 to P3). This reduction in avoidant coping (from P1 to P3) mediated the relationship between unit cohesion (P2) and improvement in mental health function (from P1 to P3).
  
  
  
  The results are consistent with the hypothesis that higher unit cohesion may mitigate increases in avoidant coping in military personnel after a combat deployment and in turn may improve mental health function. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: NJ War Related Illness & Injury Study Center, Department of Veterans Affairs.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: McAndrew
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wells College.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Markowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, NJ War Related Illness & Injury Study Center.
authors.forename: Shou-En
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, NJ War Related Illness & Injury Study Center.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borders
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, NJ War Related Illness & Injury Study Center.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rothman
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, Bedford Memorial Hospital.
authors.forename: Karen S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Quigley
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000068337:Armed Conflicts / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012944:Social Support