Meaning-making coping is an essential process for recovery from combat trauma. The meanings that combat veterans make after combat trauma, the meaning-based processes they utilize, and the social interactions they experience have not been compared across outcomes. This study was designed to shed light on this meaning-making coping process with four main goals. The first was to ascertain what combat veterans believe about their experiences. The second was to find out what meaning-making processes combat veterans utilize. The third was to understand how meaning-making coping is related to the significant relationships combat veterans have. The final question to be answered was to understand how these beliefs, meaning-making processes, and relationship interactions vary between combat veterans experiencing very different outcomes. This study utilized semi-structured interviews with 15 male combat veterans from the post 9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sample consisted of 5 resilient combat veterans, 5 highly traumatized combat veterans, and 5 growth-oriented combat veterans. A grounded theory of meaning-making coping was developed for each group and compared to the others. Results suggest global beliefs to be the driving force behind the success or failure of meaning-based coping during and after combat. The adequate global beliefs of the resilient combat veterans led to low discrepancy of meaning which enhanced the ability of that combat veteran to see the experience of combat as a challenge to be overcome by improved mental and emotional focus and internal control. After their deployment they reported improved relationships with significant others. The insufficient global beliefs of the highly traumatized group and the initial beliefs of the growth-oriented group, by contrast, led to high discrepancy of meaning which led to a sense of existential threat, physiological and emotional flooding, and high symptomology. They also reported difficulties with most significant relationships and increased closeness with other highly traumatized combat veterans. The growth-oriented group reported congruent experiences with the highly traumatized group until some point after their deployment when they recall a change in their global beliefs. At this point, they reported that their beliefs and meaning-based coping styles began to emulate those of the resilient group. Further, instead of dissociating from others they began to rebuild relationships with significant others and seek out more effective and supportive relationships. Though the sample is small, the tentative, but identifiable differences between-groups are compelling. What is believed before combat affects the perception of and response to combat itself which in turn leads to different levels of effectiveness and ability to successfully cope afterward.
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