Project VALOR: Veteran Stress and Wellbeing

The combination of alcohol use and negative emotional states is a particularly toxic combination for suicide risk. The current study examines changes in alcohol/drug use/misuse and depression as veterans transition further into their post-Army environment and offers a personalized internet-based brief intervention intended to prevent/reduce alcohol misuse and depression in this population. The study's objectives are to empirically quantify the form of changes that occur with respect to alcohol use and depression as veterans move into their second year post-Army; to identify stable individual risk factors (e.g., personality, military experiences) and dynamic risk factors (e.g., changes in stressors and normative contexts over time) that may be associated with differential temporal patterns of suicide-related behavior (i.e., alcohol use/misuse) and cognition (i.e., depression); and lastly, to determine whether a simple, internet-delivered brief intervention shown can reduce risky behavior in the veteran population.