title: Do military veteran and civilian students function differently in college?
abstract: The authors sought to assess military veterans' functioning in college by comparing their experience with that of civilian students.
  
  
  
  The study, conducted from April 2012 to February 2013, included 445 civilian and 61 student service member/veteran (SSM/V) undergraduates, drawn from a community college and two 4-year Catholic colleges, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
  
  
  
  Participants completed anonymous online surveys. Six areas of functioning in transition to college were examined: Health, Fitting In, Emotional Adjustment, Productivity, Perceived Career Support, and Social Engagement.
  
  
  
  Students, both SSM/V and civilian, with past exposure to a potentially traumatic event fit in worse than students without such exposure. Past exposure to trauma was associated with poorer emotional adjustment in civilian students, but not in SSM/V.
  
  
  
  Implications of results were discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Masters in Counseling Program, Felician University , Lodi , New Jersey , USA.
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: b Psychology Department , Felician University , Lodi , New Jersey , USA.
authors.forename: Ruvanee P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Vilhauer
authors.affiliation: c Counseling Psychology PhD Program, Seton Hall University , South Orange , New Jersey , USA.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chafos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009515:New Jersey; D009518:New York; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012044:Regression Analysis; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012933:Social Identification; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adjustment; college; fitting in; support; transition; trauma; veterans