Patterns of psychological health problems and family maltreatment among United States Air Force members. Issue 7 (12th March 2018) - Lorber, Michael F.
Abstract: Objectives: We sought to identify subgroups of individuals based on patterns of psychological health problems (PH; e.g., depressive symptoms, hazardous drinking) and family maltreatment (FM; e.g., child and partner abuse). Method: We analyzed data from very large surveys of United States Air Force active duty members with romantic partners and children. Results: Latent class analyses indicated six replicable patterns of PH problems and FM. Five of these classes, representing ∼98% of survey participants, were arrayed ordinally, with increasing risk of multiple PH problems and FM. A sixth group defied this ordinal pattern, with pronounced rates of FM and externalizing PH problems, but without correspondingly high rates/levels of internalizing PH problems. Conclusions: Ramifications of these results for intervention are discussed.