Background: Over 2.2 million service members have been deployed in and around Afghanistan or Iraq since 9/11 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2011), and about 28% represent the citizen soldiers and airmen contingency of the Air and Army National Guard as well Air Force, Army, Marine, and Navy Reserve Components service members (Congressional Research Service, 2008, p.5). With tens of thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, very little focus has been concentrated on post-deployment reintegration efforts into the civilian workforce. Many programs focus on the recruitment and hiring of veterans, such as the employer incentive programs recently expanded by President Obama (August 5, 2011); however, no program to our knowledge focuses on modifying the organization of work in order to help integrate veterans into the civilian workplace, improving their work experiences, increasing their retention, and improving thier and their families' well-being. We propose to develop and evaluate a Veteran-Supportive Supervisor Training and self-monitoring intervention, directed at the civilian workplace, to improve National Guard/Reserve Component veteran reintegration following deployment.

Objective/Hypothesis: We will test the hypothesis that our Veteran-Supportive Supervisor Training intervention will increase supervisor social support and decrease job strain for veterans leading to positive impacts on psychological and physical veteran health, and family and organizational outcomes such as marital quality, organizational retention, and job satisfaction. Additionally, we will conduct family diary interviews with all veteran-spouse/partner dyads. These interviews will provide an in-depth investigation into the workplace and family reintegration process to get a deeper sense of the day-to-day issues faced by veterans and their families, in terms of spillover and health and to discern daily experience factors that predict health and well-being outcomes and contribute to the transition process.

Study Design: With strong commitment from the Oregon National Guard, this randomized controlled trial will include pre-test and 6-month post-test measurements. We will specifically use a cluster randomized design, with randomization based on organization. A total of 500 supervisor-veteran dyads will be randomized into approximately 250 experimental and approximately 250 control dyads per condition. All spouses and partners of veterans will also be invited to participate in the survey and family diary interview study.

Relevance: The proposed research project addresses veteran reintegration and retention in the civilian workforce, health, and work outcomes among National Guard/Reserve Component veterans and their spouses/partners. Given the large numbers of veterans returning home from combat zones since 9/11, society has a responsibility to assist these veterans and their families with their transitions to civilian life. The Veteran-Supportive Supervisor Training will focus on increasing support for veterans and their families in the civilian workforce with positive impacts expected both at home and at work. Such interventions are particularly critical given the high levels of veteran unemployment compared with the non-veteran population and will only strengthen the efficacy of those national programs aimed at increasing recruitment and hiring of veterans. A translation and dissemination plan will be developed for future widespread implementation of the intervention.