The Association between PTSD, Gratitude, Academic Adjustment, and Dropout Decisions in Veteran Students with Disabilities: Brief Report

The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore whether gratitude is associated with the intention to dropout when accounting for academic adjustment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among a sample of student veterans with disabilities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, involving the participation of 129 student veterans with disabilities from a Hispanic Serving Institution in a Southwest state in the US. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression model statistics were adopted to analyze the data. The result pertained to the multi-variable model indicating that gratitude accounted for a significant amount of the variance in intention to dropout, R = .73, R² = .53, ΔR² = .50, F (6, 118) = 22.18, p < .001. A significant association was found between gratitude and intention to dropout among student veterans with disabilities (β = –.20, p = .01). Specifically, gratitude was significantly associated with lower intentions to dropout, even when accounting for the effects of PTSD symptoms and academic adjustment among the sample participants. Effective gratitude interventions could be used as promising strategies to address the risk of dropout among student veterans with disabilities, particularly those dealing with PTSD symptoms and/or poor academic adjustment.