Perceived Stress, Heart Rate, and Blood Pressure among Adolescents with Family Members Deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom

This exploratory study compares perceived stress, loss of psychosocial resources, PTSD symptoms and physiological measures (heart rate, blood pressure) among adolescents who had a family member deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom to both civilian peers and military peers with a nondeployed parent. Self-report data were collected twice from the three sample groups (n=121). Adolescents in the military, particularly those with a deployed family member, had significantly higher levels of PTSD and heart rate measures than their civilian counterparts.