Doctoral Dissertation Research: Identity Work, Stigma, and Status among Wounded Warriors

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Increased public attention on wounded and injured veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has popularized the term "wounded warrior." Wounded warrior is a new and symbolic phrase that parallels a shift in the larger social context for post-9/11 wounded veterans. In this dissertation, This research examines the symbolic meaning of "wounded warrior" and how this construct creates social expectations that impact the community and everyday lives of wounded post-9/11 veterans. Using in-depth interviews with 40 post-9/11 wounded/injured/ill veterans in combination with a content analysis of the mainstream media coverage of wounded veterans over the past decade, this project analyzes how the wounded warrior context shapes the social relationships, identity, and structural resources for the newest generation of wounded veterans. Because of the increased recognition of invisible injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), this research uses the visibility of one?s injuries (whether they are seen or not and the nature of the injury) as a comparative focal point for analyzing the convergence and divergence of the portrayal and personal experiences of veterans within the wounded warrior construct. The wounded warrior construct provides a theoretically unique opportunity to examine interactions among stigma, identity, and status. How veterans enact their identity and role as a wounded veteran also illuminates how veterans' status as a wounded warrior can counteract the stigma from their service-connected injuries/disabilities/illnesses. Using qualitative data from in-depth interviews with post-9/11 wounded veterans and a content analysis of recent media coverage, this study addresses three specific interactions among stigma, identity work and visibility: (1) how and when the potential stigma of an individual veteran's injuries is counteracted by their status as a wounded warrior, (2) how this affects the management of their identity through identity work, and (3) how individuals with different visible and less visible injuries negotiate within the same identity framework and expectations of being a wounded warrior. The complex range of injuries and whether those injuries align with stereotypical images of a "wounded warrior" changes veterans? ability to offset stigma, bringing into question how, when, and under what circumstances this stigma offsetting process occurs. Completed interviews highlight how veterans? identity work as a wounded warrior is influenced by public perceptions of wounded veterans and point to differences in the experience of stigma by context, such as visibility/recognition of injuries and across social situations. This project will provide an interpersonal view of the trials associated with reintegration into civilian society experienced by those who have been wounded in recent military conflicts.