A novel approach for evaluating programs designed to serve military veterans: Using an adapted common components analysis

•49% of Veterans indicated difficulty adjusting to civilian life after separation from service.•80% of Veterans used at least one program in the transition from military to civilian life.•Program usage and nominations varied by domain from 56% (education) to 18% (financial).•The predominant program delivery method was instruction from a lecture or manual (37%).•86% of Veterans report an absence of support in program access (e.g., transportation, child care, insurance). Evaluators are challenged to keep pace with the vast array of Veteran support programs operating in the United States, resulting in a situation in which many programs lack any evidence of impact. Due to this lack of evidence, there is no efficient way to suggest which programs are most effective in helping Veterans in need of support. One potential solution to this dilemma is to reconceptualize program evaluation, by moving away from evaluating programs individually to evaluating what is common across programs. The Common Components Analysis (CCA) is one such technique that aggregates findings from programs that have undergone rigorous evaluation at the level of program components (e.g., content, process, barrier reduction). Given that many Veteran programs lack outcome evidence from rigorous studies, an adaptation to CCA is needed. This report examines cross-sectional data from a pilot study using an adapted CCA across five domains of well-being (i.e., employment, education, legal/financial/housing, mental/physical health, and social/personal relationships). The purpose of this preliminary study is to determine the feasibility of eliciting program nominations and program components from Veterans via an online survey. When coupled with a longitudinal research design, this adaptation to CCA will allow for stronger causal claims about the expected impact of different program components within and across a variety of domains.