Psychosocial function and health in veteran families

During the last 25 years Denmark has regularly contributed to international missions through the deployment of Danish soldiers. From 1992 till 2014 32,000 Danish women and men have been deployed.
With this mapping of publications we aim to contribute with an overview of publications within the research field of psychosocial functioning and health among relatives living with a veteran, including potential gaps within this research field.
We have found 103 publications. Most of them are American, 7 are from Europe and none from Scandinavia. Most publications focus on the partner’s relationship to the veteran or the mental health of the partner while relatively few publications deal with the veteran family as a whole or its members social relations outside the primary family.
Furthermore, there are relatively few publications focusing on relatives to veterans deployed other places than Iraq and Afghanistan, publications focusing on relatives of veterans with physical injuries and few publications dealing with relatives to female veterans.
The overall conclusion is that there is a potential need for addressing psychosocial functioning and health among these groups of relatives in research to provide the best help possible.