Item Details

abstract

Veterans are honored for serving their country in American culture. However, civilians may not be aware of the unique challenges of returning from active military service. Upon returning from active service, veterans must reintegrate into civilian life. The Model of Reintegration defines reintegration the restoration to a unified state (Elnitsky et al., 2017). More specifically, reintegration speaks to the resumption of age, gender and culturally appropriate roles in the family, community, and workplace (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [DVA] 2010, p. 1) and the process of transitioning back into personal and organizational roles. The reintegration model clusters challenges veterans experience into multiple interrelated domains including psychological, social, physical, employment, financial, housing, educational, legal, and spiritual concerns. The process of reintegration may be especially challenging for African American veterans who are marginalized and experience various systemic obstacles (Zogas, 2017). Marginalization is “the process through which persons are peripheralized based on their identities, associations, experiences, and environment” (Hall, Stevens, & Meleis, 1994, p. 25). Dealing with these stressors requires adaptive coping. The transactional model of stress and coping of Lazarus and Folkman (1984), suggests people make cognitive appraisals of their (a) situations/stressors, and (b) resources to cope with the situation/stressor. This theory will be used as a lens to explore African Americans coping and outcomes during reintegration.

subject

contributor

Robinson, Frank (author)

Canzona, Mollie (committee chair)

Guy, Breonte (committee member)

date

2022-05-24T08:35:57Z (accessioned)

2022-05-24T08:35:57Z (available)

2022 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/100732 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

AFRICAN AMERICAN VETERANS’ REINTEGRATION TO CIVILIAN LIFE: EXPLORING CHALLENGES TO COPING AND CREATING CHANGE

type

Thesis