Moving Beyond Self-Reports of Aggression in Military Veterans

Aggression is common among military veterans and is one of the most frequently cited concerns for reintegrating into civilian life. To date, the vast majority of research on aggression in veterans has relied solely on self-report measures of aggression. Though self-report measures offer many advantages (e.g., ease of administration and scoring), they are susceptible to social desirability bias, recall bias, and other limitations related to misreporting. To combat these limitations, researchers encourage the use of multimethod assessments involving 2 or more types of measures (e.g., a self-report measure, a laboratory paradigm, and a clinician-administered interview). Yet only one study on veterans has used a multimethod assessment of aggression. In the current commentary, we advocate for the use of a multimethod assessment of aggression in veterans and present pilot data on the feasibility of this assessment approach. Our findings document that veterans were willing to complete a multimethod assessment of aggression and that this assessment did not substantially increase participant burden. Additionally, data collected from three well-validated assessments of aggression (a self-report measure, a laboratory paradigm, and a clinician-administered interview) captured distinct aspects of aggression, underscoring the utility of this multimethod procedure in fully assessing different facets of aggression. We urge military science researchers to consider using a multimethod assessment approach in future aggression research.