Resilience and Traumatic Brain Injury Among Iraq/Afghanistan War Veterans: Differential Patterns of Adjustment and Quality of Life

Objective: We examined the degree to which a resilient personality prototype predicted adjustment among war Veterans with and without a traumatic brain injury (TBI) while covarying the level of combat exposure. Method: A total of 127 war Veterans (107 men, 20 women; average age = 37 years) participated. Personality prototypes were derived from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Patrick, Curtain, & Tellegen, 2002). Measures were administered at baseline, and a subset was administered at 4-and 8-month follow-ups. Results: Veterans with resilient personalities reported less sleep disturbance, more health-promoting behaviors, psychological flexibility, and emotional distress tolerance than Veterans with undercontrolled or overcontrolled prototypes. Path models revealed that resilience significantly predicted posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, quality of life, and social support over time. TBI had unique and consistent effects only on PTSD. Conclusion: Personality characteristics influence distress and quality of life among war Veterans with and without TBI. Implications for assessment, interventions, and research are discussed. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.