An Action Research Study of the Spiritual Growth Among Veterans Within the Civilian Context

Military-civilian transition (MCT) for Veterans has been commonly associated with negative mental health experiences as they had to go through the intercultural changes between the military and civilian life. The purpose for this DMIN action research project was to design, coordinate, and assess a chaplain model of care called Spiritual Growth Lectio (SGL) for recently discharged Veterans. Thirteen Veterans participated in this research project through purposive sampling. The SGL model comprised a pre-test survey, six-week intervention, posttest survey, and focus group interview guided by four research questions. Quantitative data was collected from participants’ pre-test and post-test surveys. Subsequently, qualitative data was developed and collected from the focus group interview of nine participants. The data was guided by six steps of thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: Faith as an underlying factor for growth, Christian community and socio-spiritual support, ministerial outreach as a socio-spiritual need, and spiritual leadership and expectations. Participants reported that they relied on their faith for coping and building relationships with God and family members. This factor was linked with Christian community, which served as the context for growth through education, formation, worship, and social support. In the meantime, participants also reported that outreach ministry was needed within their communities. To meet the need of this ministerial outreach, participants suggested that support and guidance from the spiritual leadership was needed. Results of this study contributed to the body of research on the spiritual growth among Veterans and development of a socio-spiritual care model.