Robert J. Jackson

The role of anxiety sensitivity in the pathogenesis of panic: Prospective evaluation of spontaneous panic attacks during acute stress.

Expectancy theory posits that anxiety sensitivity may serve as a premorbid risk factor for the development of anxiety pathology (S. Reiss, 1991). The principal aim of the present study was to determine whether anxiety sensitivity acts as a specific vulnerability factor in the pathogenesis of anxiety pathology. A large, nonclinical sample of young adults (N = 1,401) was prospectively followed over a 5-week highly stressful period of time (i.e., military basic training). Anxiety sensitivity was found to predict the development of spontaneous panic attacks after controlling for a history of panic attacks and trait anxiety. Approximately 20% of those scoring in the upper decile on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (R. A. Peterson & S. Reiss, 1987) experienced a panic attack during the 5-week follow-up period compared with only 6% for the remainder of the sample. Anxiety sensitivity also predicted anxiety symptomatology, functional impairment created by anxiety, and disability. These data provide strong evidence for anxiety sensitivity as a risk factor in the development of panic attacks and other anxiety symptoms.

The AACC Leadership Competencies: Parallel Views from the Top

This study examined how a group of community college presidents and board of trustee chairpersons from New York and Florida viewed the competencies, characteristics, and professional skills identified by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) (2005) as important for effective community college leadership. In addition, the presidents were asked to identify those activities and experiences that they found helpful in developing the AACC leadership competencies. The results from this study suggest that community college presidents and board of trustee chairpersons converge in their views of the AACC leadership competencies. Their views reveal high expectations for community college presidents and highlight experiences related to the development of these competencies. Practice implications for hiring and developing community college leaders are offered.

Leadership Education and Assessment: A Developmental Approach

The number of leadership education and development programs has increased substantially over the past few decades. However, deliberate assessment strategies aimed at understanding actual student development have not kept pace. The primary reason for this limitation likely involves the challenges that are associated with this type of assessment. When examining leadership one is not only interested in the mere acquisition and retention of knowledge, but the actual application and practice of such knowledge. There are a host of challenges that stand in the way of such assessment. In the present paper we call attention to several of these challenges in an effort to understand what effective leader education assessment could look like. Additionally, we offer two examples of how intentional assessment strategies can be implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of leader education and development.

Mixed Methods in a Post-Deployment Study of U.S. Army National Guard Soldiers

Mixed methods research combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to achieve a product that is more than the sum of its parts. Here, the authors combine two different data reduction techniques—factor and content analyses of quantitative and qualitative data, respectively—to tap the dimensions of deployment-related variables among U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers: stressors and supports, resilience, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and post-traumatic growth. Using these combined techniques, the authors explore the validity and substance of these variables and their measures so that employers and practitioners can better understand what deployment means for their employees and clients who are in the ARNG.

Combat Stress Control and Prevention: What Can Be Learned from an Application of Workplace Behavioral Health in a Deployed Combat Environment?

This article details a Combat Stress Control and Prevention (CSCP) teams tour during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It highlights the similarities between battlefield and Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) behavioral health care methods and practices. A CSCP teams mission is to provide battle-front direct mental health services to commanders and combatants via consultation, education, advocacy and proximal prevention, intervention and stabilization, and if indicated, evacuation of overstressed troops. This teams access, credibility, and social networking were critical in preventing and responding to war-fighters combat stressors in a timely manner. As in EAP work, credibility with leadership and bridging social capital are essential components for workplace behavioral health prevention success.

Military sexual trauma: an application of the Toxic Triangle Model

Sexual assault in the military is an intolerable problem. A challenge in dealing with this problem has been the lack of a conceptual framework for comprehensively organizing needed interventions. Adapting the Toxic Triangle model developed by Padilla, Hogan, and Kaiser (2007), we examine military sexual assault from the interacting perspectives of conducive environments, destructive leaders, and susceptible followers. These components support tactical interventions, many of which can be conducted through the existing infrastructure of training and professional military education. Interventions include better leader development, accountability, and assertive followership.

The “Tip of the Spear” Revisited: Evidence from Recent Deployments of U.S. National Guard Troops to Iraq and Afghanistan

The unconventional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alter the link between military occupational specialties and proximity to the “tip of the spear,” in other words, military actions on the leading edge of combat. We examine the psychological and behavioral consequences of deployment and combat stressors for a sample of U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers. The analyses confirm that combat service and support personnel are more likely than those in the combat arms to experience tip-of-the-spear stressors. However, regardless of specialty, exposure to death carries through the analyses as a significant predictor of negative outcomes. An appreciation of these nuances may help mental health professionals provide assistance more effectively for their ARNG clients.