. How often are Army veterans who have served during wartime diagnosed with PTSD after returning to civilian life?

I attempted to construct five measurable question which will be interesting for a research design once planning is done.  For question number one, the criterion variable would be the individuals (husband or wife) affected. According to Sukal (2013), “The outcome itself is the dependent variable, also known as the outcome variable or criterion; it is the affected variable, or the consequence variable” (Sukal, 2013, para. 7).  My predictor variable was identified as the variables which instigates the behaviors. There are multiple independent variables in this questions which relate to feelings of betrayal, being unloved by your partner, and fear of commitment.  There could also be confounding variables that can play a substantial role within this context.