Research has indicated that OEF/OIF veterans are experiencing mental health concerns following deployment. While there are increasing numbers of veterans returning to higher education institutions after discharging from the military, there is a scarcity of empirical research investigating student veterans’ experiences as they transition into college. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether social support moderates the effects of psychological distress on college adjustment among a sample of student veterans. Participants were administered a Background Information Questionnaire, measures of psychological distress (i.e., GAD-7, PHQ-9, IES-R), Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Social Support, and the Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire. Multiple regressions revealed significant main effects for the variables of interest, but analyses failed to support the hypothesis that perceived social support would moderate the effects of psychological distress on college adjustment.

The current study examined relationships among acculturation, parent-child relationship quality, and selected wellbeing indicators (health-related quality of life, life satisfaction, anxiety, depression, and stress) among a group of young adults from immigrant families of Asian and Hispanic descent. The first goal of the current study was to replicate previous research demonstrating a mixed relationship between acculturation and the wellbeing indicators. The second was to explain this relationship by testing for a moderation effect of parental care on the acculturation-wellbeing relationship. An examination of differences between members of the two ethnic groups on all measured variables served an exploratory purpose. Participants included 204 participants of Asian (N =80) and Hispanic (N = 124) descent who came from an immigrant family, or a family in which at least one parent was born outside of the U.S. Eligible respondents were also current students at the University of the North Texas who fell within the age range of 18-24, and the data for the current study was selected from a larger dataset (N = 1064). Results indicated that higher acculturation levels had a positive effect on each wellbeing indicator. Father Care and Mother Care were found to be significantly positively correlated with most outcome …

Shattered assumptions theory posits that each individual has a core set of assumptions about the world and the self, often termed the assumptive world which includes: the world is a benevolent place, the world is meaningful, and the self is worthy. Experiencing a traumatic event is believed to lead individuals to question these assumptions in light of the new contradictory information that causes the assumptive world to shatter, leaving the individual to rebuild a more negative perception of the world and themselves. This rebuilding of a fragile new set of core beliefs is believed to be a cause of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Although shattered assumptions theory has been widely accepted in the field of trauma psychology, the shattering of the assumptive world has not been empirically supported due to measurement issues and poor research designs. The current study implemented a prospective design to assess a new measure of the individual’s assumptive world when there is an intervening trauma. In a college sample (N = 336), individuals who experienced a traumatic event over the course of the semester (n = 40) evidenced decreases in optimism in their assumptive worlds, in comparison to individuals who did not experience a traumatic …