Effects of Recent and Past Stress on Mental Health: Coping with Unemployment Among Vietnam Veterans and Nonveterans1

To determine the additive as well as interactive effects of pre-war stresses (adolescence), Vietnam war stresses (combat experiences) and post-war stresses (job loss, other life events), interview data were collected from a sample of 486 males who were eligible for service during the Vietnam war era. Of these respondents, 297 had recently lost their job and thus became subjected to the stress of unemployment. Our findings, like those of others (Egendorf, Kadushin, Laufer, Rothbart, & Sloan, 1981; Boulanger, 1981), suggest that exposure to war produces long-lasting effects on emotional well-being. Similarly, stressful childhood and adolescence experiences also appear to be long-lasting. In contrast to the long-lasting effects of these past stresses, the harmful effects of unemployment on mental health are reversed when employment is regained. All of the past pre-war and war stresses, and the recent unemployment and other stressful life events that were investigated had independent, adverse, main effects on mental health. Social support and internal control orientation had independent, positive, main effects on mental health. Of the various recent and past stresses, only the recent ones, unemployment and later unpleasant life events, had an additional exacerbating (interactive) effect on mental health.