ABSTRACT
The current study examined correlates of life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War Veterans. The sample included 450 male Veterans from the Korean Vietnam War Veterans Study, surveyed by mail in 2013 (Mean age = 67.4 years old, SD = 3.0). A hierarchical analysis was conducted by entering four blocks of variables: first demographic factors, and then pre-military service, military service, and post-military service variables. Each successive regression analysis showed a significant additional contribution to the variance in life satisfaction. In the final model, Korean Veterans had higher life satisfaction when they were married, had higher monthly income and poorer childhood family environment, appraised their military service in a positive light, and had less stressors after homecoming and better perceived physical health. However, combat exposure and social support after homecoming were not independently associated with life satisfaction in the final model. These results imply that both pre- and post-military service factors, as well as cognitive appraisals of military service, should be considered in understanding the subjective well-being of Korean Vietnam War Veterans in later life.
What is the public significance of this article?—This study suggests that interventions for mental health among Korean Vietnam War veterans should consider both distal (pre-military service) and proximal (post-military service) factors, focusing on improving their resilience based on perceived positive aspects of military service.
Introduction
Well-being refers to the experience of pleasure or happiness according to the hedonic perspective, and subjective well-being (SWB) has been used in much prior research as the prime index of well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2001). SWB is widely known as having three components; positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. While the affective aspects of SWB relate to the frequency and intensity of emotional reaction, life satisfaction is defined as a cognitive assessment of quality of life as a whole (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003; Pavot & Diener, 2008). Current mood or life events can have a small impact on judgment of life satisfaction, but the cognitive evaluations are based primarily on long-lasting accessible information such as unemployment, stressful or traumatic experiences, or relationships with others (Pavot & Diener, 2008).
Life satisfaction is one of the key components of subjective well-being (Diener et al., 2003), and an indicator of successful aging (Meeks & Murrell, 2001). In addition, earlier research provides evidence that life satisfaction can influence socioeconomic attainment (De Neve & Oswald, 2012; Judge & Watanabe, 1993), risk of suicide (Koivumaa-Honkanen et al., 2001), and all-cause mortality (Collins, Glei, & Goldman, 2009; Hülür et al., 2017). For these reasons, much prior research has sought to find predictors that decrease or increase life satisfaction among older adults. Especially, lifetime trauma, such as natural disaster or life-threatening disease, was found to have a lifelong impact on life satisfaction (Krause, 2004; Lamoureux-Lamarche & Vasiliadis, 2017); social support (Krause, 2004) and positive attitude toward life (Seker, 2016) alleviated the effects of trauma.
Compared to knowing the strong effect of trauma on life satisfaction in civilian samples, little is known about the effect of combat exposure, a type of trauma, on life satisfaction among veterans, with the exception of a few studies that showed associations with proximal resources. Although combat veterans reported lower life satisfaction than non-combat (Aldwin, Park, Choun, & Lee, 2018; Ikin et al., 2009), the association between combat exposure and life satisfaction decreased when other correlates were entered into the equation. For example, the significant relationship between combat exposure and life satisfaction became nonsignificant in the presence of post-deployment life stressors, personal resources, such as social support and sense of mastery, and health variables (Seligowski et al., 2012). Thus, personal resources and health outcomes may be more likely than combat trauma to be related to subjective well-being of veterans.
As discussed above, proximal variables (i.e., post-military service variables) are found to have a close association with subjective well-being in later life. However, less is known about the impacts of distal variables (i.e., pre-military service variables), such as childhood family environment or childhood trauma, on veterans’ life satisfaction, despite their long-term impacts on mental well-being (Hughes, Lowey, Quigg, & Bellis, 2016). In addition, research findings on life satisfaction of veterans were largely from the US samples, and it is unclear whether the correlates of life satisfaction from these veterans are similar to that of veterans from other countries.
In order to address these research gaps, the current study examined correlates of life satisfaction across lifespan among Korean Vietnam War veterans. As the second largest troops after the US military forces, Republic of Korea sent 324,864 soldiers to the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973. Among them, 5,099 died and 10,962 were injured (South Korea Agency for Defense Development, 1996). Despite the considerable number of veterans who were deployed to the warzone, little attention has been paid to their subjective well-being and the factors associated with them in this population. Thus, the current study can provide an information to understand the vulnerability and resilience factors for life satisfaction in older Korean veterans who deployed to the Vietnam War.
Lifespan variables related to life satisfaction
Based on the lifespan perspective, Lansford (2018) reviewed the empirical evidence that diverse life experiences and stressors from childhood to adulthood, such as negative childhood environments, traumas, and social relationships, can have for both short- and long-term effects on subjective well-being. Thus, it may be instructive to examine which variables over the lifespan are associated with veterans’ subjective well-being, in order to facilitate understanding of well-being in later life. From this point of view, pre-military service variables need to be considered. Previous research on general population noted that adverse childhood experience, such as physical abuse or having a family member with mental illness, predicted lower life satisfaction in adulthood (Hughes et al., 2016; Nurius, Logan-Greene, & Green, 2012). Similarly, Yang, Quach, Lee, Spiro, and Burr (2020) demonstrated that childhood adversity was negatively associated with life satisfaction among male veterans. In addition, longitudinal studies showed that individuals who grew up in a family environment that is characterized by intimacy had better psychological well-being in later life (An & Cooney, 2006; Lee et al., 2015). Kang, Aldwin, Choun, and Spiro (2016) also found that veterans who had conflictual family environments showed higher PTSD symptoms in later life. Given that life satisfaction is strongly and inversely correlated with PTSD symptoms (Brady et al., 2019), it is possible that veterans with earlier traumatic experience or negative childhood family background will have lower life satisfaction.
In terms of military service-related variables that should be considered besides combat exposure, positive appraisals of military service can play a pivotal role in increased life satisfaction. Previous research on US veterans showed that those who appraised their military service in a positive light reported higher subjective well-being (Seligowski et al., 2012) and psychological well-being (Lee, Aldwin, Choun, & Spiro, 2017). In addition, deliberate rumination, which refers to thinking about stressful events to seek meaning or benefits, following challenge to core belief had a positive impact on perceived positive change as a result of the struggle with adversity (post-traumatic growth), which in turn led to higher life satisfaction (Morgan, Desmarais, Mitchell, & Simons-Rudolph, 2017).
Little research so far has examined the relationship between negative appraisals of military service and well-being. However, it is conceivable that veterans who negatively perceived their military service may have lower life satisfaction, given the consistent findings that the negative appraisals of military service were positively associated with detrimental mental health in later life, such as PTSD and depressive symptoms (Aldwin et al., 1994; Kang et al., 2016).
On the other hand, stressful life events after homecoming, social support, and physical health, which are post-military service variables, were significantly correlated with life satisfaction, and the last two factors had persistent effects on subjective well-being of American veterans (Seligowski et al., 2012). In addition, veterans having considerable social support from family members or friends reported better relationships with others and improved spirituality (Erbes et al., 2005). Research on older civilians also showed that social support played a crucial role in having better subjective well-being (Dumitrache, Rubio, & Rubio-Herrera, 2018; Shen & Yeatts, 2013), and that self-reported health was associated with higher life satisfaction over time (Mroczek & Spiro, 2005). Among the Korean civilian samples, positive social support and perceived physical health were also important contributors to life satisfaction in later life (Park, Roh, & Yeo, 2011; Shin & Sok, 2012) and successful aging (Kim, Park, & Park, 2017). Thus, the current study included both pre- and post-military service variables as well as military-related variables to examine their associations with life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War veterans.
Present study
As indicated above, life satisfaction of veterans can be influenced by various factors, such as life stressors and psychosocial resources, as well as combat exposure. In addition, the research findings on veterans’ life satisfaction have been mainly from American samples. Thus, the current study aimed to determine correlates of life satisfaction in Korean Vietnam War veterans, considering variables from three different domains across the lifespan: pre-military service factors (prior stressors and childhood family environments), military service factors (combat exposure, and positive and negative appraisals of military service), and post-military service factors (post-deployment stressors, social support, and self-rated health). Additionally, we included demographic variables (age, education, marital status, and income) given their significant relationships with life satisfaction in older Koreans. For example, life satisfaction among civilians in late life decreased with age (Lee & Lee, 2019; Shin & Sok, 2012), and those who were more educated (Kimm, Sull, Gombojav, Yi, & Ohrr, 2012), being married (Kim et al., 2017), and had higher income (Hur & Cho, 2017) showed higher levels of life satisfaction.
Based on the research finding that showed a negative association between childhood adversities and life satisfaction in later life (Yang et al., 2020), we hypothesized that prior stressors would be negatively associated with life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War veterans. The association of childhood family environments with life satisfaction has been little examined among veterans. However, given the significant relationship with PTSD (Kang et al., 2016), we hypothesized that Korean veterans who had negative childhood family environments would have lower life satisfaction. As for military service variables, it was hypothesized that veterans who were more exposed to combat, and perceived their military service as negative would have lower life satisfaction, according to Seligowski et al. (2012) and Kang et al. (2016), while those who appraised military service in a positive light would report higher life satisfaction, based on Lee et al. (2017). Among post-military service variables, social support, and self-rated health were considered as having positive relationships, in accordance with Seligowski et al. (2012), while post-deployment stressors were hypothesized as having inverse association with life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War veterans, given their positive associations with PTSD (Kang et al., 206).
Methods
Sample and procedure
The data for this study was collected from Korean veterans who were deployed to the Vietnam War. In order to obtain a nationally representative sample of Korean Vietnam War veterans, researchers contacted the Korean Vietnam War Veterans Association and received contact numbers and mail addresses of 16 branches of the Association. Thus, we sent 450 questionnaires to nine branches (50 per each branch), which are located in east, west, south, north, and middle provinces of South Korea, and 620 questionnaires were sent to seven branches (50 to 200 per each branch) in metropolises, such as Seoul and Busan. The number of questionnaires for branches in metropolises depended on veteran populations (e.g., 200 for Seoul branch, the capital, and 50 for Incheon city branch). The head of each branch asked veterans whether they were interested in participating the survey, and distributed questionnaires with postage prepaid envelopes.
Among 1,070 veterans who were given the questionnaires, 454 (42.43%) replied to the survey with signed consent forms in the same year. The response rate varied across the different geographical areas: 12% in the north, 50% in the east, 84% in the west, 63% in the southwest; 45% in the southeast; and 15% in the midlands area. Excluding four unreliable responses (i.e., straight-lining response), the current study used the data from 450 Korean Vietnam War veterans.
The participants were all male, and their mean age was 67.4 years old (SD = 3.0, range = 61–84) in 2013. Most of them had a high school graduate or below (79%), and were currently married (90%). Korean National Statistical data for older Korean men in their 60 to 79 years in 2010 show similar levels of education (81% had a high school graduate or below) and marital status (87.5% were married) (Korean Statistical Information Service, 2021). In addition, as of the year when entering the military, the participants’ average age was 20.71 years (SD = 1.55), and most of them (92.8%) were not married at that time. Similarly, Korean National Statistical data show that 92.7% of Korean men in their 20 to 24 years were not married in 1970 (Korean Statistical Information Service, 2021). Given that Korean men are obliged to serve in the military, and most of them enter the military in their early 20s in general, it is likely that the participants were similar to the population that entered the Korean military in terms of demographics. However, there might be a bias in terms of affiliating with the veterans’ association, but whether that would reflect greater resilience (e.g., ability to tolerate socializing) or greater vulnerability (e.g., need for social support from such organizations) is unclear.
The sample consists of soldiers (79.8%), NCOs (16.6%), and officers (3.6%), which can reflect the population: soldiers 74.3%, NCOs 17.5%, and officers 8.2% (Korean Vietnam War Veterans Association, 2021). Additionally, about 86% served in the Army, and 2% and 12% served in the Navy and Marines, respectively. Although the participants were largely from the Army, the sample ratio was also very similar to the population; the Army veterans who were deployed to the Vietnam War was 287,487 (88%), and the Navy and Marine veterans were 5,598 (2%) and 31,141 (10%), respectively (Korean Vietnam War Veterans Association, 2021). This study was approved from the Hwarangdae Research Institute in Korea Military Academy. The data for this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Measures
Life satisfaction
Life satisfaction was assessed with Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), which measures overall satisfaction of one’s life. Given that both life satisfaction and affective aspects of SWB are evaluated by subjective appraisals (Pavot & Diener, 2009), they are not mutually exclusive and the responses to life satisfaction are likely to be affected by emotional aspects of SWB. Nevertheless, much prior research has utilized SWLS to assess life satisfaction in terms of global cognitive judgment of one’s life, and showed that SWLS had discriminant validity from emotional well-being measures (Pavot & Diener, 2009). Thus, we also considered SWLS as a measure for assessing cognitive components of SWB, life satisfaction, rather than affective components of SWB. This scale consists of 5 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (i.e., “in most ways my life is close to my ideal,” 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). The total sum of item responses was used for analyses, with higher scores indicating higher levels of life satisfaction (Cronbach’s α = .88).
Pre-military service variables
Prior stressors were assessed using 15 items drawn from Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI) (King, King, Vogt, Knight, & Samper, 2006). Each item measures exposure to traumatic events before deployment on a dichotomous scale (e.g., “before I was deployed, I experienced the death of someone close to me,” 0 = no, 1 = yes). The total sum of item responses was used, with higher scores indicating greater prior stressors (Cronbach’s α = .83).
Childhood family environment was assessed using 15 items from DRRI (King et al., 2006), which measure the quality of early family life on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g., “people in my family did things together,” 1 = almost none of the time to 5 = almost all of the time). Eight reverse items were recoded, and then the total sum of item responses was used; higher scores indicated more positive childhood family environment (Cronbach’s α = .84).
Military service variables
Combat exposure was assessed using the 7-item Combat Exposure Scale (Keane et al., 1989). Each item measures the severity or frequency of combat experience on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g., “were you ever under enemy fire,” 1 = never to 5 = over 7 months). Scores of each item were adjusted following Keane et al. (1989), and the total sum of weighted scores was used; higher scores indicated greater combat exposure (Cronbach’s α = .87).
Appraisals of military service were assessed using a 28-item self-report scale from Aldwin et al. (1994). Participants rated the positive aspects (14 items; e.g., “learned to cope with adversity”) and negative aspects (14 items; e.g., “waste of time, boredom”) of military service on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = not at all to 4 = a lot). Total sums of scores for each measure were used, with higher scores indicating higher positive appraisals and negative appraisals of military service, respectively (Cronbach’s αs = .92 and .90, respectively).
Post-military service variables
Post-deployment stressors were assessed using 17 items drawn from DRRI (King et al., 2006). Each item measures exposure to stressful life events after the military service on a dichotomous scale (e.g., “since returning home, I have had problems getting access to adequate health care,” 0 = no, 1 = yes). The total sum of item responses was used. Higher scores reflected more stressful life events after homecoming (Cronbach’s α = .84).
Post-deployment social support was assessed using 15 items from DRRI (King et al., 2006), which measure emotional and instrumental support from family, friends, and coworkers on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g., “the reception I received when I returned from my deployment made me feel appreciated for my efforts,” 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Two reverse items were recoded, and then the total sum of item responses was used; higher scores indicated higher levels of social support (Cronbach’s α = .89).
Self-rated health is globally and extensively used to measure individuals’ health status (Badley, Canizares, Perruccio, Hogg‐Johnson, & Gignac, 2015; Craigs, Twiddy, Parker, & West, 2014). Participants rated their general health by responding to the following single item, “how would you rate your health at the present time.” Response options were very poor (1), poor (2), fair (3), good (4), and very good (5).
Demographics
Age, education, marital status, and income were utilized as demographic factors. Age was assessed in years. Highest education attainment was rated on a 5-point item (1 = elementary school, 2 = middle school, 3 = high school, 4 = college/university, and 5 = graduate). We dichotomized the marital status as 0 = not currently married and 1 =currently married. Monthly income was measured on a 6-point item (1 = none, 2 = under ￦1,000,000, 3 = ￦1,000,001–￦2,000,000, 4 = ￦2,000,001–￦3,000,000, 3 = ￦3,000,001–￦4,000,000, 6 = over ￦4,000,001).
Analyses
We first computed bivariate correlations among study variables, and then conducted a hierarchical multiple regression to examine the associations of multiple independent variables across the lifespan with life satisfaction in later life. The hierarchical order for entry can be based on the structural properties of research variables (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003). Thus, demographic factors (age, education, marital status, and income) were first entered at step 1 to examine their associations with life satisfaction, and then to control their effects to identify unique contributions of other variables across the lifespan in the following analyses. Next, the lifespan variables were chronologically added into the regression models. Pre-military service factors (prior stressors and childhood family environment) were entered at step 2, followed by military service factors (combat exposure, positive appraisals, and negative appraisals of military service) at step 3. Finally, post-military service factors (post-deployment stressors, social support, and self-rated health) were added at step 4. Missing values in the study variables ranged from 1.1% to 10.7%. Thus, we imputed the missing values using single imputation by expectation maximization (EM), which enables the variables to be imputed with maximum likelihood values (Acock, 2005). SPSS 25 (IBM Corp, 2017) was utilized to impute the missing values and compute estimates for standardized coefficients from the hierarchical regression analyses.
Results
Descriptive statistics and bivariate associations among study variables are shown in Table 1. Life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War veterans was weakly or moderately associated with most of the demographic and lifespan variables except for age, education, and childhood family environment. Specifically, veterans with higher levels of life satisfaction were married, had higher monthly income, reported fewer stressors (prior stressors, combat exposure, post-deployment stressors), had more psychosocial resources (low levels of negative appraisals but high levels of positive appraisals of military service and social support), and reported better subjective physical health. Additionally, combat exposure was positively associated with other stressors (pre- and post-military service stressors) and negative appraisals of military service; it was negatively correlated with income, childhood family environment, and perceived physical health.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations among Study Variables a (N = 450)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Age | − | ||||||||||||
| 2. Education | −.02 | − | |||||||||||
| 3. Marital statusb | −.01 | .06 | − | ||||||||||
| 4. Income | −.02 | .29*** | .17*** | − | |||||||||
| 5. Prior stressors | .01 | −.09* | −.02 | −.04 | − | ||||||||
| 6. Childhood family environment | .03 | .16*** | .09* | .18*** | −.24*** | − | |||||||
| 7. Combat exposure | −.06 | .01 | −.04 | −.08* | .14** | −.10* | − | ||||||
| 8. Positive appraisals of military service | .13** | .17*** | .16*** | .20*** | −.06 | .35*** | .03 | − | |||||
| 9. Negative appraisals of military service | .05 | −.05 | −.17** | −.20*** | .34*** | −.28*** | .23*** | −.12** | − | ||||
| 10. Post-deployment stressors | −.13** | −.12** | −.13** | −.17*** | .56*** | −.11* | .25*** | −.06 | .38*** | ||||
| 11. Post-deployment social support | .13** | .08* | .16*** | .20*** | −.06 | .29*** | −.07 | .50*** | −.23*** | −.20*** | − | ||
| 12. Self-rated health | −.01 | .20*** | .01 | .25*** | −.25*** | .01 | −.15** | .04 | −.21*** | −.27*** | .07 | − | |
| 13. Life satisfaction | −.06 | .07 | .22*** | .33*** | −.17*** | −.02 | −.13** | .15** | −.20*** | −.29*** | .18*** | .30*** | − |
| M | 67.43 | 2.80 | .90 | 2.51 | 2.89 | 53.91 | 14.48 | 29.91 | 15.51 | 4.33 | 52.37 | 2.39 | 16.41 |
| SD | 3.00 | .98 | .30 | 1.20 | 3.06 | 9.30 | 8.64 | 7.30 | 8.85 | 3.66 | 9.97 | .86 | 6.70 |
| Range | 61–84 | 1–5 | 0, 1 | 1–5 | 0–15 | 15–75 | 0–41 | 0–42 | 0–42 | 0–17 | 15–75 | 1–5 | 5–35 |
| Cronbach’s α | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | .83 | .84 | .87 | .92 | .90 | .84 | .89 | N/A | .88 |
aPairwise correlation. bMarital status: 0 = not currently married, 1 = currently married.
* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
Table 2 provides the results from the hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Each successive regression analysis showed a significant additional contribution to the variance in life satisfaction (R2 = .26 in the final model). Among demographic variables, being married and income had unique contributions to the variance in life satisfaction at Step 1, and their significant relationships remained in the following analyses. Controlling the effects of demographic factors, both prior stressors and childhood family environment were significantly associated with life satisfaction at Step 2, and their effects still remained even after military service-related variables were added to the model at Step 3. That is, childhood adversity was inversely related to life satisfaction, but surprisingly, childhood family environment was also negatively associated with life satisfaction. Combat exposure was inversely related, and positive appraisals of military service positively related, to life satisfaction. Negative appraisals of military service were not independently associated with life satisfaction.
Table 2. Hierarchical Multiple Regressions for Life Satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War Veterans (N = 450)
| Step1 (demographic factors) |
Step2 (pre-military factors) |
Step3 (military factors) |
Step4 (post-military factors) |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | SE | β | B | SE | β | B | SE | β | B | SE | β | |
| Age | −.12 | .09 | −.06 | −.11 | .10 | −.05 | −.15 | .10 | −.07 | −.22 | .10 | −.10* |
| Education | −.23 | .32 | −.03 | −.23 | .31 | −.03 | −.25 | .31 | −.04 | −.49 | .31 | −.07 |
| Marital status | 3.81 | 1.00 | .17*** | 3.94 | 1.00 | .18*** | 3.36 | .98 | .15*** | 3.23 | .96 | .15*** |
| Income | 1.71 | .26 | .31*** | 1.79 | .26 | .32*** | 1.61 | .26 | .29*** | 1.28 | .26 | .23*** |
| Prior stressors | – | – | – | −.40 | .10 | −.18*** | −.33 | .10 | −.15** | −.07 | .12 | −.03 |
| Childhood family environment | – | – | – | −.09 | .03 | −.12** | −.13 | .03 | −.18*** | −.10 | .03 | −.14** |
| Combat exposure | – | – | – | – | – | – | −.07 | .03 | −.09* | −.04 | .03 | −.05 |
| Positive appraisals | – | – | – | – | – | – | .12 | .04 | .13** | .09 | .05 | .10* |
| Negative appraisals | – | – | – | – | – | – | −.06 | .04 | −.07 | −.01 | .04 | −.01 |
| Post-deployment stressors | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | −.30 | .10 | −.17** |
| Post-deployment Social support | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | .05 | .03 | .07 |
| Self-rated health | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1.47 | .36 | .19*** |
| R2 | .139, F(4,445) = 17.94*** | .176, F(6,443) = 15.76*** | .203, F(9,440) = 12.42*** | .257, F(12,437) = 12.62*** | ||||||||
| ∆R2 | . | .037, F(2,443) = 9.96*** | .027, F(3,440) = 4.90** | .055, F(3,437) = 10.76*** | ||||||||
* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
When the post-military service variables were entered in Step 4, the impacts from prior stressors and combat exposure became non-significant. However, being married, having a higher income, positive appraisals, and self-rated health still had unique positive contributions to the variance in life satisfaction, and post-deployment stressors and positive childhood family environments were inversely associated with life satisfaction. Thus, the final model showed that Korean Vietnam War veterans had higher life satisfaction when they were married, had higher monthly income and poorer family environment during childhood, appraised their military service in a positive light, and had less stressors after homecoming and better perceived physical health.
The inverse relationship between childhood family environment and life satisfaction in the multiple regression analyses, despite the non-bivariate association, was different result from prior research (e.g., An & Cooney, 2006; Lee et al., 2015). Thus, additional analyses were conducted to investigate the unusual association. First, the variance information factors (VIFs) for multicollinearity among independent variables (IVs) were all less than 1.8, meaning that the IVs can be used together. Next, we omitted prior stressors in the analyses. This was because the childhood adversities, such as physical abuse from parents, would be related to family environment during childhood, which in turn might influence the negative relationship between childhood family environment and life satisfaction. When prior stressors were omitted at Step 2, childhood family environment was not related to life satisfaction. However, since the military service-related variables were added at Step 3, the family environment during childhood still had independent negative contributions to the variance in life satisfaction; β = −.16, p < .001 at Step 3 and β = −.14, p = .003 at Step 4. Lastly, a nonlinear relationship was analyzed between childhood family environment and life satisfaction, but we found no significant quadratic effect of the predictor, family environment during childhood.
Discussion
The current study sought to determine the correlates of life satisfaction among older Korean male veterans who were deployed to the Vietnam War, and found that some important variables across the lifespan had independent associations. Among demographic variables, marital status, and monthly income showed straightforward associations with life satisfaction, which is consistent with previous research findings on older Koreans (An, An, O’Connor, & Wexler, 2008; Hur & Cho, 2017) and US male Veterans (Seligowski et al., 2012).
Principal findings
Among pre-military service variables, adverse childhood experiences before military service were a significant contributor until Step 3. However, it turned out to have no distinct association with life satisfaction in older Korean Vietnam War veterans when proximal stressors were added. On the other hand, the current study showed an interesting result that childhood family environment emerged as a significant, but unfavorable, contributor to life satisfaction of Korean Vietnam War veterans. That is, those who had negative family relationships during childhood reported better life satisfaction in later life. This is at odds with previous research that showed beneficial impacts of favorable childhood relationships with parents on mental well-being in later life (e.g., Lee et al., 2015). Given the non-significant correlation between the two variables, the inverse association in the succeeding regression analyses may be due to confounding variables that are not included in this study. Thus, the relationship between childhood family environment and life satisfaction in later life needs to be further examined in the future research.
In terms of military service variables, earlier research shows that combat exposure has a persistent impact on PTSD during adulthood (Kang, Kim, & Lee, 2014; Settersten, 2006; Spiro, Settersten, & Aldwin, 2016). However, the adverse experience during military service does not appear to have a unique association with life satisfaction in older Korean Vietnam War veterans. In line with research findings from the US Veterans (Seligowski et al., 2012; Yang & Burr, 2016), combat exposure in the presence of proximal stressors and personal resources did not have a lifelong impact on life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War Veterans. In addition, positive appraisals of military service were consistently and significantly associated with life satisfaction in accord with Seligowski et al. (2012). These results imply that having a positive perspective on military service may take a leading place in experiencing higher subjective well-being among older veterans. Nonetheless, further studies are needed to grasp the causal relations between cognitive appraisals and subjective well-being, such as a pathway through which the desirable cognitive appraisals lead to life satisfaction.
Among post-military service variables, stressors and perceived physical health played a distinctive role in subjective well-being among Korean Vietnam War veterans, which reiterates the evidence from both general Korean samples (Shin & Sok, 2012) and the US Veterans (Seligowski et al., 2012). Interestingly, childhood adversities and combat exposure were significantly correlated with life satisfaction, but only post-deployment stressors had a unique impact in the final model. These results indicate that life satisfaction in Korean Vietnam War veterans is more likely to relate to proximal than distal stressors.
Contrary to our hypothesis, social support had no distinct impact on life satisfaction in the final model including various types of stressors. This may show that social support did not serve as a protective factor against the detrimental effects of the stressors. Kim, Sherman, and Taylor (2008) argued that Asians use or seek less social support for coping with stress than do European Americans. This is in part because individuals in collectivistic cultures assume that it is not desirable to share personal problems to social network in that it may burden others (Kim et al., 2008). In this regard, Korean male veterans who were deployed to the Vietnam War might have been reluctant to seek social support for coping with their stress, and failed to weaken the deleterious impact of the various stressors on life satisfaction in this study.
Limitations and future work
There are several limitations in our study. First, the data was collected by self-reported questionnaires, retrospectively. Thus, earlier experiences (prior stressors and family environment) and combat exposure may be subject to recall bias. In addition, given that the results of this study were from a cross-sectional data, we cannot postulate directions of causality among study variables. In this sense, it may be possible that the current life satisfaction can influence evaluations of combat exposure and family environment, reflecting the issue of causal directionality. However, Brewin, Andrews, and Gotlib (1993) argued, based on a meta-analytic review, that recollecting early experience related to stress was only weakly associated with current psychological states. Perceived physical health and appraisals of military service can also be influenced by the current life satisfaction, but prior research utilizing large cross-sectional samples found that the variables served as important predictors of life satisfaction or PTSD (Aldwin et al., 1994; Pinto, Fontaine, & Neri, 2016; Seligowski et al., 2012). Nevertheless, further studies are needed to ascertain the causality or a pathway through which earlier traumatic experience and physical health influenced subjective well-being among older veterans, utilizing longitudinal data.
Second, this study included various variables from three different phases across the lifespan. However, the total variance accounted by independent variables in the final model was about 26% (R2 = .257), which indicates that there still remain other important variables that are associated with life satisfaction in later life. Previous research found that personal characteristics, such as optimism (Leung, Moneta, & McBride-Chang, 2005), sense of control (Seligowski et al., 2012), and religious beliefs (Plouffe & Tremblay, 2017), played an important role in having higher life satisfaction. Findings from older Korean samples also showed that optimism (Gong, Kim, & Ha, 2005), self-esteem (Chang & Park, 2012), and religious beliefs (Kim & Park, 2000) were significantly associated with subjective well-being. Thus, more studies including other resilience variables are needed to investigate the correlates or predictors of life satisfaction among Korean Vietnam War veterans.
Third, the sample was all male veterans, which limits the ability to generalize the results to female veterans or the general female population. Using data from 150 countries, Joshanloo (2018) found that social support was a more important predictor of life satisfaction in women, whereas being married or unemployed were more important predictors in men. In a Korean sample, living with spouse was associated with life satisfaction in only men, while education was significantly related to life satisfaction in only women (Park, 2005). Thus, future studies should include female veterans to understand if the impacts of military and nonmilitary variables on life satisfaction vary depending on the gender.
Fourth, we also have little information on how representative our sample was of the broader cohort, as biases due to participation in the veterans’ association and/or differential survival are unknown. However, we note that the participation rate of our sample in various military branches was quite similar to that of the broader cohort, and that we sampled broadly across South Korea, so we are reasonably confident that our results may generalize to male Vietnam War veterans from this era.
Conclusions
Despite these limitations, the current study is promising in that it examined various variables across the lifespan that contribute to subjective well-being among Korean Vietnam War veterans. Conceptually, diverse life stressors or experiences from childhood to adulthood can influence life satisfaction in later life (Lansford, 2018). Prior research has focused on combat trauma, current relationships with others, and physical or mental health, as main predictors of veterans’ subjective well-being. However, the current study showed the importance of considering both distal (pre-military service) and proximal (post-military service) factors, as well as positive cognitive appraisals of military service, to understand the life satisfaction of Korean Vietnam War veterans in later life. On the other hand, health professionals or social workers should consider both resilience and vulnerability correlates of subjective well-being to provide appropriate interventions. In our study sample, positive appraisals of military service and subjective physical health were important resilience factors, and post-deployment stressors were main vulnerability factors. Thus, cognitive interventions using information from positive appraisals of military service and physical health program can be helpful to enhance subjective well-being of Korean Vietnam War veterans in later life.
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