Social support in combat-exposed military personnel

The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between social support and health and well-being in (ex-)military personnel following the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

This project seeks to understand the impact of combat injury on social support and how social support changes over the course of the lifetime, following combat deployment. Additionally it will explore the role that social support plays in psychological well-being.

Mixed-methods PhD consisting of a systematic review, quantitative analyses of ADVANCE data and qualitative interviews. 

• What is the prevalence and associated factors of perceived social support in combat-exposed military personnel within the current literature?
• What is the prevalence of structural and functional social support in UK Armed Forces who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan?
• Does social support differ in combat-injured and uninjured military personnel?
• What are the longitudinal trajectories of social support?
• What is the relationship between mental health and social support in combat-exposed military personnel?

The sample is comprised of 1144 male UK (ex-)military personnel who were deployed to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014, consisting of 579 combat-injured participants (161 with amputation injuries and 418 with non-amputation injuries), and an uninjured comparison group (n=565) matched by age, rank, regiment, deployment and role on deployment.