Abstract
Veterans and military service members enter the classroom with valuable life and leadership experience; however, transitioning to student life represents unique challenges. Like the larger veteran population, student veterans may bring to campus the negative aftereffects of their combat experiences in the form of Post-Traumatic Stress, substance abuse, depression, and thoughts of suicide. To better support and retain the nation’s growing number of student veterans, higher-education institutions are beginning to train faculty and staff to more effectively understand and meet the needs of student veteran populations. This study examines the impact of a new and innovative game-based virtual training simulation where users role-play with emotionally responsive virtual student veterans to understand the unique value veterans bring to campus, the obstacles they face in their pursuit of a college degree, effective tactics for managing challenging conversations and the best practices for connecting student veterans exhibiting signs of psychological distress with appropriate support services. Longitudinal data showed significant (p
Highlights
Veterans and military service members represent an important portion of the higher-education population, with over 1 million veterans using their education benefits since 2008 (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014)
Using meta-analysis strategies, Ramchand et al (2010) found the post-traumatic stress (PTS) prevalence rate among the general population of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans to be within the range of 5% to 20%, depending on the type of screening instrument used, the sampling procedures, and the definition of PTS used by the investigators
There are no validated measures of military cultural competency (MCC) in higher educational institutions; we developed five items where participants were asked about (1) how prepared they were to talk with a student veteran about his or her military service, (2) knowledge about the common challenges facing the student veteran population, (3) preparedness to manage classroom discussions around veteran-sensitive issues, (4) comfort in talking to a student veteran about his or her military service, and (5) preparedness to refer student veterans to appropriate campus offices
Summary
Veterans and military service members represent an important portion of the higher-education population, with over 1 million veterans using their education benefits since 2008 (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014). Over one fourth (27.1%) of OIF/OEF active-duty veterans and over one third (35.5%) of National Guard and Reservist veterans were found to be at mental health risk, defined by the authors as being at risk for at least one of the following: depression, PTS, suicidal ideation, interpersonal conflict, or aggressive ideation. These rates of PTS among the post-9/11 veteran population are higher than the rates found in college students generally (9.0%) by Read, Ouimette, White, Colder, and Farrow (2011), but they are nearly even with the reported college-student prevalence of depression of 12.1% (American College Health Association, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
