World War II veterans, social support, and veterans' associations

People use many different coping strategies to deal with their traumatic re collections. Twenty-five British World War II veterans were interviewed reg arding the ways they used social support both during the war and in the yea rs afterwards. The findings demonstrate that social support is used in fund amentally different ways. During the war comradeship was particularly impor tant and even fifty years after the war comrades are still a valuable resou rce for discussing war experiences, and dealing with the emotional content of traumatic recollections. Veterans rely on wives and families to help dea l with the more physical and practical elements of coping, but tend not to discuss their traumatic memories with them. The findings show that social s upport is an important lifelong coping strategy for World War II veterans.