Combat tours don’t cause permanent readjustment issues for vets: Study

Veterans’ ability to thrive in civilian life after war may have more to do with societal support than their own lingering combat trauma, according to a study from the Swedish Defence Research Agency.

In a 20-year study that tracked 2,275 Swedish service members who served as peacekeepers in Bosnia in the 1990s, study authors found no evidence of long-term barriers to veterans’ success in civilian jobs and no indication that time in a war zone permanently impairs those individuals’ ability to move on to future, non-combat jobs.

“Even though the veterans did indeed experience an increased risk of unemployment in the two years immediately following their return from service, there is no indication that in the long run their attachment to the labour market was affected negatively by their service,” the study authors wrote.