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Investigators surveyed health care providers (N = 250) deployed to the Persian Gulf on the USNS Comfort hospital ship days before the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1990. In this article, we identify factors associated with the development of depression during deployment. Age, gender, negative life events, stress from trauma-related work demands, and occupational experience with the dying and the dead were significant predictors of depression. Military training, although not associated with the experience of depression, was negatively correlated with concern about injury.

To determine the relationship between length of soldier deployment and self-reports of moderate and severe spousal violence.

Just before the onset of Operation Desert Storm, health care personnel (N = 250) onboard the USNS Comfort reported the occurrence of life events for the preceding year, including before deployment and during the Persian Gulf War. Study participants noted both total and negative life events. The mean number of negative life events during the preceding year was 1.44; a sizable proportion of participants (38%) reported no negative life events during this time. There were no differences in the mean number of total or negative life events by gender, although women checked significantly more life event items related to interpersonal factors and men noted more life events concerning financial issues. Women, nurses, the childless, and lower ranking officers noted significantly greater negative life events during predeployment than deployment. Negative life events were moderately related to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Both research and policy implications are discussed.

The development of the USNS Comfort hospital ship during the Persian Gulf War provided an opportunity to examine the relationship of gender to stress and coping in health care providers exposed to wartime stressors. Just before the outbreak of Operation Desert Storm, medical personnel (N = 250) rated the stressfulness of current wartime experiences and the helpfulness of stress-reducing resources onboard ship in a combat theater. The responses of men and women were compared; to identify the dimensions of these responses, a principal factor analysis (orthogonal rotation) was performed. Generally, men and women ranked stressors and stress reducers similarly; women scored higher on the stress ratings. Two factors, similar for men and women, were identified in the stress ratings: fear of injury and trauma-related work demands. The dimensions of the stress reducers, however, were different for men and women. The findings support retrospective studies and suggest that different mechanisms of stress reduction may be operative even though men and women are performing the same activity.

To report the distributions and characteristics of spouse abuse victims and offenders in the U.S. Army Central Registry from 1989 to 1997.