Surviving Vietnam: Psychological Consequences of the War for U.S. Veterans presents a unique combination of historical material, military records of combat exposure, clinical diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and interviews with representative samples of veterans surveyed both a little over decade after the war’s conclusion in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS), and again nearly four decades after the war’s conclusion in the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (Longitudinal Study). It focuses specifically on veterans’ war-zone experiences and the development in some of PTSD, a relatively new and controversial diagnosis. The monograph begins with a brief history of the Vietnam war that provides context for the discussions of the relevance to their mental health outcomes of the severity of veterans’ exposure to combat, their personal involvement in harm to civilians and prisoners, their race/ethnicity, and their military assignments. It discusses nurses’ experiences in Vietnam and the psychological impact on families of veterans’ chronic war-related PTSD. The monograph then examines factors affecting surveyed veterans’ post-war readjustment, including the effects of changing public attitudes toward the war and the veterans’ own appraisals of the impact of the war on their lives after the war. It concludes by discussing the policy implications of its research findings.
Pre-school nutrition-related behaviours at home and early childhood education services: findings from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study