The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1 - 180

Wade G. Livingston • David A. Scott • Pamela A. Havice • Tony W. Cawthon

they wanted to participate in the study. When they responded, the researcher contacted them to ensure that they were student veterans and had re-enrolled at the institution within the previous five years. the convenience sample yielded 15 participants; 14 participants were White males, and one was a White female. all branches of the armed forces were represented in the sample. interview questions were developed using the 4 s’s (situation, self, strategies, and support) as denoted by sargent and schlossberg (1988) and by schlossberg et al. (1989). the 4 s’s are coping mechanisms employed by persons in transition. Situation is an individual’s contextual outlook on the transition as a whole. Self is the individual’s experience, attitude, and overall awareness related to the transition. Strategies are the actual coping mechanisms employed by an individual. Support refers to the financial and emotional support networks to which an individual has access. data were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding as specified by strauss and corbin (1990, 1998). this coding process involved fracturing the data into concepts, combining concepts to form categories, and examining the interrelation between categories to form overarching themes. throughout the analysis, the researcher employed five strategies to ensure the credibility and validity of findings: peer debriefing, data saturation, examination and triangulation of additional data sources to test emergent findings, a second round of interviews of purposely selected participants, and utilization of an audit trail (consisting of the researcher’s memos and field notes) to develop a rich description of the data (creswell, 2003).
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THEMES RELATED TO MALE STUDENT VETERANS’ SOCIAL TRANSITIONS
livingston (2009) generated three overarching and interconnected themes that explain male student veterans’ social transitions after re-enrolling in college. the theme of Military Influence explains how participants’ military experiences and identities influenced their worldview and their interactions with peers. Invisibility describes how participants selectively disclosed their military identity and how this affected their connection with campus. Finally, Support clarifies how participants viewed fellow student veterans and faculty, staff, and administrators with prior military experience as important sources of support.

Military Influence
the theme of military influence—the foundation of the two other themes—was the most important theme that emerged from the data. Participants noted that, because of their military experience, they had changed as individuals. moreover, this change was permanent and impacted their worldview and interactions with others. the most important facet of military influence was maturity. Participants explained that the military had matured them; not only

The theme of Invisibility was revealed when participants explained their reluctance to disclose their veteran status to non-military persons .

The Journal of College and universiTy sTudenT housing

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1