A Structural Equation Modeling Approach to Examine the Impact of Campus Environment and PTSD on Student Veteran Functioning

Background: Student veterans comprise approximately 4.9% of all U.S. undergraduate students. Although being in the military provides an experience that can foster many life skills (e.g. dedication, perseverance, and organization) that can be beneficial in a role of a student, military experience can also lead to difficulties in this transition. The campus environment has been suggested to be an important factor in the well-being of student veterans as it can offer supports for success, but can also lead to stigmatizing experiences. This study’s purpose was to investigate if perceived amount of institutional veteran friendliness and stigmatization affect Post 9/11 student veteran functioning, and what role symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) play in this picture.

Methods: A total of 201 participants were included in this sample and completed the PCL-SF, surveys created for this study using survey development research techniques to measure perceived veteran-friendliness and stigmatization on campus, the WHOQOL-BREF, and the EASI. All participants had served in the military after 9/11/2001, were enrolled in a higher education program, and attended courses on campus. AMOS was used to test the structural relationships of the model with a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to examine the relationship between veterans’ perceptions of veteran-friendliness, stigmatization on campus, PTSD symptoms, and quality of life and beliefs in treatment seeking.

Results: The measures of model fitness were: The CFI =.99, the TLI=.94, the SRMR=.03, and the RMSEA=.05. These indices suggested that the final model fit the data well.  Approximately half of this sample met criteria for PTSD. PTSD was related to perceived stigmatization and predictive of lower quality of life. Perceived stigmatization was predictive of lower quality of life and predictive of more negative beliefs about treatment seeking. However, only 9.4% of the variance in beliefs about treatment seeking was explained by perceived stigmatization. Quality of life had more variance explained by the full model, with 48% of the variation in quality of life being explained by PTSD and perceived stigmatization. The relationship between perceived stigmatization and quality of life was moderated by veteran-friendliness, though the effect was borderline significant. Veteran-friendliness dampens the negative relationship between perceived stigmatization and quality of life.

Implications: Implications of this study for policy and social work include the need to use GI Bill funding to support veteran specific services on campus, including services for PTSD. Findings from this study also highlight the additional need of educating others on campus in order to address cultural concerns to lessen experiences of stigmatization.