Veterans wellbeing
Overview
Little is known about how veterans’ social group memberships and social identity act as resources or the role they play during stressful life transitions.
This project aimed to:
- Explore the relationships between Australian Defence Force veterans’ social networks, identities and wellbeing following the transition from the military to civilian life; and,
- Identify the barriers and facilitators to engagement with social groups that veterans experience.
Using a mixed-methods approach, this project involved:
- 80 veterans completing a structured questionnaire; and,
- 40 of those participants completing an in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interview about their experiences of life in the ADF, social group engagement and transition to civilian life.
Furthermore, novel visualisation tasks developed by our team, were also completed in the interviews which included social identity and life course mapping tasks. Findings of the project will have important implications for health and wellbeing interventions, along with future policy directions, that may benefit the experience of Australian Defence Force veterans as they transition from the military to civilian life.
Project team
Turning Point team
Dr Michael Savic, Emma Sandral, Dr Anthony Barnett, Ramez Bathish, Dr Alison Cheetham, and Professor Dan Lubman.
Project partners
Professor David Forbes (University of Melbourne), and Professor David Best (Sheffield Hallam University).