Since 1998, the Trauma Research, Education, and Consultation at K-State (TRECK) Team has been involved with conducting a variety of trauma-related research projects. Under the direction of Dr. Briana Nelson Goff, research teams have been involved in research on military couples related to the TRECK Research. A mixed methods research design has been used in all phases of the TRECK Research, which has included quantitative questionnaires that identify post-traumatic stress symptomatology in both partners and quality of the current couple relationship. The qualitative interviews focus on the interpersonal impact of trauma on the couple relationship, intrapersonal effects of trauma exposure on both partners, and current relationship functioning. A total of 50 military couples were recruited from Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and other areas of Kansas to understand how their war deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) impact the soldiers, their partners, and their couple relationship. Since 1998, over 100 students have been involved with the TRECK Team research projects; 65 of those students have been undergraduate researchers. Undergraduate students have been involved in data entry, interview transcription, data analysis, research presentations and manuscript development. The qualitative analysis teams have included undergraduate research assistants participating in the data analysis of the interviews.
In 2013-2014, two research teams conducted data analysis with the TRECK military couples data, to gain an understanding of how disclosure of their previous trauma experiences (including but not limited to war deployment) for both partners may impact individual and couple functioning. These TRECK Research Teams included the following publications and projects (undergraduate students involved with the teams are indicated in BOLD below):
Kathryn Hartman, Kali Summers, Devon Perkins, Laura Walker & J. Kale Monk (manuscript submitted for review). Trauma disclosure in military couples: A comparison of trauma symptoms and relationship quality. Research team project, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.
– Undergraduate research poster presented at the K-State Research Forum, Manhattan, KS. (Received 1st place designation)
Kali Summers, Kathryn Hartman, Alex Billings, Megan Chevalier, Haley Hermes, Devon Perkins, Laura Walker, & J. Kale Monk (manuscript in process). Trauma disclosure and deployment experiences in military couples. Research team project, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.
– Undergraduate research poster presented at the K-State Research Forum, Manhattan, KS.
Two articles related to the TRECK Team Military couples research also were published in Spring 2014:
– Monk, J. K., & Nelson Goff, B. S. (in press). Military couples’ trauma disclosure: Moderating between trauma symptoms and relationship quality. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, and Practice.
– Nelson Goff, B. S., Irwin, L., Devine, S., Cox, M., Orrick, K., & Schmitz, A. (2014). A qualitative study of single-trauma and dual-trauma military couples. Invited submission for a special section on dual trauma couples in the journal, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6, 216-223. doi: 10.1037/a0036697.
Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/tra/6/3/216/
