ABSTRACT

Various forms of assistance are offered to help US Veterans achieve success in their post-military lives in recognition of their service. Despite the many successes, a significant number of Veterans continue to remain at risk for negative mental health outcomes, including suicidality and low levels of life satisfaction. These findings may be due to challenges arising from cultural identity dissonance. Problematic strategies used by Veterans to reduce this dissonance can result in a lack of belongingness, a key component in Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. The authors suggest that research on the immigrant experience of acculturation may provide a new perspective to better understand issues of identity and sense of belonging in Veterans. Given that most Veterans return to the culture in which they grew up, the authors offer the term “reculturation.” The authors propose clinical psychology focus on exploring the reculturation process of Veterans to support program engagement and suicide prevention.

摘要

我们提供各种形式的援助，帮助美国退伍军人在退伍后的生活中取得成功，以表彰他们的服务。尽管取得了许多成功，但大量退伍军人仍然面临着负面心理健康结果的风险，包括自杀倾向和生活满意度低。这些发现可能是由于文化身份失调带来的挑战造成的。退伍军人为减少这种不和谐而使用的有问题的策略可能会导致缺乏归属感，而归属感是乔伊纳自杀人际理论的一个关键组成部分。作者认为，对移民文化适应经历的研究可能为更好地理解退伍军人的身份和归属感问题提供新的视角。鉴于大多数退伍军人回到了他们成长的文化，作者提出了“重新文化”一词。作者建议临床心理学重点探索退伍军人的再文化过程，以支持项目参与和自杀预防。