Military combat exposure and risk domains: assessing associations in current and former U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers.

Abstract

The association between combat exposure and mental health outcomes among military personnel is well established. However, less is understood about the relationship between combat exposure, military status, and various risk domains. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of combat exposure on various domains of risk and to identify if associations differ based on the military status (current vs. former) of U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard (USAR/NG) soldiers. Data for this analysis comes from Operation: SAFETY (Soldiers and Families Excelling Through the Years), a longitudinal study that seeks to examine the health and well-being of USAR/NG soldiers and their partners. For this report, we used a cross-sectional subset of the data to examine associations between combat exposure and the risk domains of previously deployed male USAR/NG soldiers (N = 192) with Cherpitel's risk behavior scale. Findings revealed a significant interaction between combat exposure and military status on risk perception (p < 0.05), suggesting that perceptions change as exposure increases and that this effect is stronger in current soldiers. The interaction between combat exposure and military status on sensation-seeking was also significant (p < 0.05), where greater combat exposure was associated with greater sensation-seeking among former, but not current soldiers. These findings highlight the importance of developing interventions that can address the role that combat experiences have on risk perception and sensation-seeking behaviors post-deployment.