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Peer Emotional Support, Perceived Self-Efficacy, and Mental Health Morbidities Among Student-Veterans at a Public University

Abstract In the current U.S. military operational environment, it has been estimated that up to 700,000 troop years (cumulative years of service including multiple tours of duty) have been logged over the past decade since offensive campaigns began, following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (Smith, Benight, & Cieslak, 2013). With this influx of eligible beneficiaries, the utilization of Veterans Administration (VA) education benefits more than doubled between 2001 and 2012 (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2013). This study examined the relationship between peer emotional support and perceived self-efficacy and their implications for, or relationship to, mental health morbidities in a postsecondary educational setting. The study included 39 matriculated student-veterans at an accredited postsecondary institution in New England. Participants answered 32 questions related to three constructs: perceived self-efficacy, peer emotional support, and mental health morbidity. It was found that a moderate, but significant, positive correlation exists between perceived self-efficacy and peer emotional support in student-veterans. A moderate but significant negative correlation was uncovered between perceived self-efficacy and mental health morbidity. In addition, this study found that first-year students report significantly lower peer emotional support than seniors and graduate students. It was also found that those veterans with only one deployment reported significantly greater self-efficacy than those who had deployed twice. This study serves as a conduit into future research on the multifaceted issues facing student-veterans.