Suchergebnisse

Relationships are important for successful aging, but older military veterans (aged 65 and older) experience distinct barriers and challenges to social connection. We argue that theories of social connectedness and health in older adults do not fully reflect the experiences of veterans despite providing fundamental insight into the social needs of individuals in later life. Thus, the purpose of this article is to (a) articulate the importance of social relationships for older adult veterans, (b) describe the theories commonly used to understand social connectedness and health in older adults, (c) delineate the limitations of applying these frameworks in military veteran populations in their current form, and (d) suggest potential ways to adapt these theories for older veterans. In line with this goal, we conclude by offering recommendations for understanding older adult veterans in a relational context in order to set a research and practice agenda for military family scholars and practitioners.

AbstractThis review considers existing literature about military and veteran families' deployment‐related experiences in relation to three separate, yet related, temporal rhythms. First, we consider military family functioning within a short‐term rhythm focused on dynamic family interactions (e.g., communicative exchanges) that occur daily. Next, we consider medium‐term rhythms characterized by more temporal stability. Examples of such rhythms include established marital and parenting patterns that likely have bidirectional associations with adjustment to deployments or other experiences connected to military service. The final rhythm focuses on long‐term implications of wartime service for military and veteran families. We conclude by considering examples of ways these different rhythms of individual and family functioning may intersect. Our main purpose in highlighting these rhythms is to generate fruitful directions for future research about the conditions under which deployment‐induced transitions may produce periods of dysfunction, promote positive growth, or leave individuals and families relatively unchanged.

Research indicates that discussing one's romantic relationship with one's partner benefits individual well-being and reduces uncertainty about the future of the relationship. Implications of relationship talk with friends remain less clear, though talking with friends may actually increase uncertainty about the relationship (e.g., by making one's partner jealous of these friends), particularly for emerging adults. Relationship talk with friends may be especially likely to promote relational uncertainty for couples who are already unsatisfied in their relationships. In this study, we explored whether relationship talk with one's partner and one's friends would each be uniquely associated with depressive symptoms and uncertainty about the relationship, specifically in the form of perceived partner jealousy of one's friends and whether these associations would be moderated by relationship satisfaction. Results from a series of path models using data from 202 romantically involved emerging adults in the United States revealed that associations between relationship talk and outcomes were indeed moderated by relationship satisfaction. For example, only in unsatisfied relationships was relationship talk with friends positively associated with a partner's jealousy and negatively associated with depressive symptoms. This research expands our understanding of relationship talk by differentiating between talk with partners versus friends, while considering the contextual role of relationship satisfaction.

It is projected that by 2020 there will be 8.7 million veterans over the age of 65, more than half (64%) of whom served during the Vietnam War. The effects of military service on mental health and well-being may be more pronounced later in life among those who served in Vietnam than prior cohorts of veterans. Many veterans confront and rework their wartime memories later in life in an attempt to find meaning and coherence, engaging in a process referred to as Later-Adulthood Trauma Reengagement (LATR). LATR often occurs in the context of other stressors that are a normative part of aging, such as role transitions (e.g., retirement), declines in physical health, and the death of close others (e.g., spouses), perhaps because these events trigger reminiscence. Importantly, LATR may result in either positive (e.g., acceptance) or negative (e.g., distress) psychological outcomes. It has been suggested that the presence of social/environmental resources, including socioemotional support, may aid veterans in successfully navigating LATR. We therefore review relevant areas of research to delineate the role that various layers of social context may play in helping—or hindering—aging Vietnam veterans as they navigate LATR in the context of normative late-life stressors. We conclude by offering fruitful directions for future research and applied implications for intervention efforts.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS. This article examines the feasibility of leveraging Twitter to detect posts authored by people who use opioids (PWUO) or content related to opioid use disorder (OUD), and manually develop a multidimensional taxonomy of relevant tweets. DESIGN AND METHODS. Twitter messages were collected between June and October 2017 (n = 23 827) and evaluated using an inductive coding approach. Content was then manually classified into two axes (n = 17 420): (i) user experience regarding accessing, using, or recovery from illicit opioids; and (ii) content categories (e.g. policies, medical information, jokes/sarcasm). RESULTS. The most prevalent categories consisted of jokes or sarcastic comments pertaining to OUD, PWUOs or hypothetically using illicit opioids (63%), informational content about treatments for OUD, overdose prevention or accessing self-help groups (20%), and commentary about government opioid policy or news related to opioids (17%). Posts by PWUOs centered on identifying illicit sources for procuring opioids (i.e. online, drug dealers; 49%), symptoms and/or strategies to quell opioid withdrawal symptoms (21%), and combining illicit opioid use with other substances, such as cocaine or benzodiazepines (17%). State and public health experts infrequently posted content pertaining to OUD (1%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Twitter offers a feasible approach to identify PWUO. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of Twitter to disseminate evidence-based content and facilitate linkage to treatment and harm reduction services.