Danger- and non-danger-based stressors and their relations to posttraumatic deprecation or growth in Norwegian veterans deployed to Afghanistan

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants (56.7%) and non-responders (43.3%) of Norwegian Afghanistan veterans (N = 7155) by numbers and percentage.

	Participants N = 4053 (%)	Non-Responders N = 3012 (%)
Biological Sex (female)*	336 (8.3)	164 (5.3)
Biological Sex (male)	3717 (91.7)	2938 (94.7)
Post Deployment Marital status (married)	1256 (31.0)	977 (31.5)
Deployment Age (years)*
20–30	1305 (32.2)	1256 (40.5)
30–40	1528 (37.7)	1070 (34.5)
40–50	884 (21.8)	512 (16.5)
50+	336 (8.3)	264 (8.5)
Employment status (Post Deployment)
Unemployed	182 (4.5)	130 (4.2)
Employed in the military	1905 (47.0)	1442 (46.5)
Long-term disabled	89 (2.2)	78 (2.5)

Note. Chi-square test, * Significant discrepancy (p < .005) between responders and non-responders. Age registered at beginning of deployment.

Table 2. Frequencies and percentage of those who reported ‘Exposed’ to Personal Threat, Witnessing and Moral Challenges. The 12 war zone stressor items are included from a sample of Norwegian Afghanistan veterans (N = 4053).

War Zone Stressors Items	Exposed n (%)
Personal Threat	2005 (49.7)
Wounded or injured in combat	110 (2.7)
Attacked by enemies	1802 (45.0)
Surrounded or ambushed by enemies	818 (20.4)
Experienced moment I thought I would die	836 (20.8)
Witnessing	3056 (77.6)
Seen, processed or handled dead bodies or body parts	1503 (37.5)
Know someone seriously injured or killed	1956 (48.8)
Witnessed brutality towards civilians, captured enemies, or prisoners	746 (18.6)
Seen innocent victims of war	2210 (55.4)
Seen fellow solider being seriously injured or killed	572 (14.3)
Moral Challenges	1830 (45.9)
Seen morally reprehensible occurrences	1697 (42.4)
Did or participated in morally reprehensible occurrences	446 (11.1)
Failed to act on something I in retrospect think I should have done	503 (12.6)

Note. Individual respondents may report multiple stressors. Exposed = Experienced at least once.

Table 3. Multivariate multiple linear regression of exposure scores from three war zone stressors: Personal Threat, Witnessing and Moral Challenges, and also the persons’ number of deployments and time since last deployment as the independent variables in relation to the psychological distress scales: PTSS, HADS-A, HADS-D and ISI as the dependent variables.

Variables	B	SE	β	R^2
PTSS [F(5, 3886) = 144.987, p < .001)]				.157***
Personal Threat	.756	.079	.160***
Witnessing	.657	.066	.176***
Moral Challenges	1.206	.100	.195***
Time Since Last Deployment	−.048	.055	−.013
Number of Deployments	−.240	.079	−.046
HADS-A [F(5, 3886) = 36.606, p < .001)]				.045***
Personal Threat	.067	.027	.045
Witnessing	.081	.022	.069***
Moral Challenges	.302	.034	.155***
Time Since Last Deployment	.014	.018	.012
Number of Deployments	−.059	.027	−.036
HADS-D [F(5, 3886) = 34.886, p < .001)]				.043***
Personal Threat	.041	.023	.032
Witnessing	.069	.019	.067***
Moral Challenges	.269	.029	.159***
Time Since Last Deployment	.000	.016	−.001
Number of Deployments	−.014	.023	−.010
ISI [F(5, 3886) = 18.935, p < .001)]				.024***
Personal Threat	−.024	.038	−.011
Witnessing	.129	.032	.077***
Moral Challenges	.311	.048	.112***
Time Since Last Deployment	−.021	.026	−.013
Number of Deployments	−.081	.038	−.035

Note. Post-Traumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS); Hospital Anxiety and Depression Rating Scale (HADS-A, HADS-D); Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). <> Exposure score Sig. *** p < .001 with distress scale.

Table 4. One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc group comparison of exposure scores from war zone stressors in relation to the deprecation group, the growth group and the no change group in the Norwegian Afghanistan veterans (N = 4053).

					Post Hoc Test (Bonferroni)
War Zone Stressors	Mean Deprecation Group	Mean Growth Group	Mean No Change Group	One-way ANOVA Welch’s F	Group comp.	Mean diff.	p
Sub-Dimension I: Self-Confidence
Personal Threat	M[1.28(±1.83)]	M[1.49(±1.96)]	M[.73(±1.38)]	F(2, 3965) = 56.21 p < .001	−1 vs 1	−.21	.30
					−1 vs 0	.55	< .001
					1 vs 0	.76	< .001
Moral Challenges	M[1.34(±1.82)]	M[1.04(±1.45)]	M[.67(±1.17)]	F(2, 3969) = 30.34 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.30	.007
					−1 vs 0	.67	< .001
					1 vs 0	.37	< .001
Witnessing	M[3.16(±2.74)]	M[2.75(±2.38)]	M[1.97(±2.16)]	F(2, 3946) = 42.47 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.41	.037
					−1 vs 0	1.19	< .001
					1 vs 0	.78	< .001
n	228	2939	857
Sub-Dimension II: Interpersonal Involvement
Personal Threat	M[1.87(±2.19)]	M[1.39(±1.87)]	M[.95(±1.58)]	F(2, 3970) = 72.21 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.47	< .001
					−1 vs 0	.91	< .001
					1 vs 0	.43	< .001
Moral Challenges	M[1.46(±1.74)]	M[1.00(±1.41)]	M[.70(±1.17)]	F(2, 3974) = 83.22 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.45	< .001
					−1 vs 0	.76	< .001
					1 vs 0	.30	< .001
Witnessing	M[3.43(±2.69)]	M[2.64(±2.30)]	M[2.14(±2.15)]	F(2, 3950) = 87.05 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.79	< .001
					−1 vs 0	1.29	< .001
					1 vs 0	.50	< .001
n	886	1486	1663
Sub-Dimension III: Awareness
Personal Threat	M[1.56(±1.91)]	M[1.40(±1.91)]	M[.99(±1.68)]	F(2, 3966) = 16.73 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.16	.79
					−1 vs 0	.57	< .001
					1 vs 0	.41	< .001
Moral Challenges	M[1.79(±1.92)]	M[1.01(±1.42)]	M[.70(±1.25)]	F(2, 3970) = 45.90 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.78	< .001
					−1 vs 0	1.09	< .001
					1 vs 0	.31	< .001
Witnessing	M[3.55(±2.77)]	M[2.70(±2.34)]	M[2.07(±2.24)]	F(2, 3946) = 36.80 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.85	< .001
					−1 vs 0	1.47	< .001
					1 vs 0	.62	< .001
n	182	3028	815
Sub-Dimension IV: Social Adaptability
Personal Threat	M[1.85(±2.18]	M[1.45(±1.87)]	M[.99(±1.71)]	F(2, 3971) = 47.32 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.40	< .001
					−1 vs 0	.86	< .001
					1 vs 0	.46	< .001
Moral Challenges	M[1.54(±1.77)]	M[1.08(±1.46)]	M[.69(±1.20)]	F(2, 3975) = 73.08 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.46	< .001
					−1 vs 0	.85	< .001
					1 vs 0	.39	< .001
Witnessing	M[3.36(±2.65)]	M[2.82(±2.36)]	M[2.12(±2.24)]	F(2, 3950) = 65.25 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.54	< .001
					−1 vs 0	1.25	< .001
					1 vs 0	.70	< .001
n	449	1990	1596
Posttraumatic Change Scale Total
Personal Threat	M[1.45(±1.92)]	M[1.38(±1.90)]	M[.80(±1.48)]	F(2, 3967) = 19.18 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.07	1.00
					−1 vs 0	.65	< .001
					1 vs 0	.57	< .001
Moral Challenges	M[1.46(±1.85)]	M[.98(±1.40)]	M[.60(±1.13)]	F(2, 3971) = 34.21 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.48	< .001
					−1 vs 0	.86	< .001
					1 vs 0	.38	< .001
Witnessing	M[3.29(±2.77)]	M[2.63(±2.33)]	M[1.93(±2.29)]	F(2, 3947) = 31.63 p < .001	−1 vs 1	.66	< .001
					−1 vs 0	1.36	< .001
					1 vs 0	.70	< .001
N	326	3255	445

Note. Between-group comparisons (Bonferroni post-hoc test): significant at p < .001. Non-significant between-group comparison presented in bold.