“I just wanna be another person at school”: Disclosing veteran identity on campus and effects on campus engagement

Abstract

Objective: To describe how veterans feel about disclosing their military status on campus and impacts on engagement with social and health-related services. Participants: Thirty-one university student veterans who participated in a student veterans’ health study. Participants self-identified as White and male (90%) with an average age of 29.5 years and 6.7 years of military service. Methods: Qualitative interviews explored veterans’ perceptions of belonging on campus and the impact of veteran identity on educational experiences. Data analysis used an inductive, content-based approach. Results: Themes included: (1) varied feelings around disclosing military service history, with many preferring not to disclose; (2) visibility of resources on campus; and (3) use of resources on campus for social engagement, mental, and physical health. Conclusions: Findings illustrate student veterans’ complex experiences, and how feelings about disclosing veteran identity on campus relate to resource use. Campuses should acknowledge and explore this complexity with student veterans’ input to ensure that supports meet their needs.

Keywords:

• Campus engagement
• health-related challenges
• military identity
• service utilization
• veterans

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board at the University at Buffalo.

Data availability statement

Limited portions of data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [BV] upon reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Mentored Career Development Award (PI Vest) through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award Number UL1TR001412 to the University at Buffalo.