Testing a Resilience Model Among Canadian Forces Recruits
MILITARY MEDICINE
Testing a Resilience Model Among Canadian Forces Recruits
Alla Skomorovsky 1
Sonya Stevens 0
0 Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University , 923 Robie Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00389
1 Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada, Department of National Defence , 101 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K2
Evidence suggests that personal characteristics serve as resilience factors, and may protect military personnel against the development of psychological distress, even during stressful conditions. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted on data from Canadian Forces candidates undertaking their basic training (N = 200) to test the fit of a model of resilience that is comprised of several individual characteristics, such as personality, hardiness, and coping. The most parsimonious model of resilience with the best fit to the data was identified. This model consisted of neuroticism, military hardiness, and problem-solving coping. The results of the study were consistent with previous research, showing that personality, military hardiness, and coping are important predictors of life satisfaction and health. The proposed resilience model offers a useful approach for the development of training programs to enhance readiness and recovery in the military context.
INTRODUCTION
It is often assumed that psychological well-being is influenced
by life stressors.1 However, research shows that not everyone
who experiences a negative life event develops a psychological
health problem. For example, research on military
communities illustrated that some military personnel exposed to
warrelated stressors had no negative health consequences.2 It has
been suggested that some personal characteristics might buffer
these individuals against the negative impact of these events on
psychological health, making them more resilient.3
Military jobs are more physically and psychologically
demanding than most civilian jobs.4 They involve multiple
adverse experiences, such as fear, sensory overload,
constantly changing environments, and exposure to climatic
changes,5 as well as stressors such as deployment and
prolonged periods of time away from home.6 Because stress is
a major component of military life,7 military personnel are
required to be psychologically resilient; thus, knowing the
psychological characteristics that predict resilience is vital for
military organizations.
Individual Characteristics and Resilience
Resilience is usually defined by the ability to bounce back
from negative emotional experiences and by flexible
adaptation to the changing demands of stressful experiences.8 It is
commonly viewed as a dynamic and context-specific
construct, characterized by either the absence or the natural
resolution of stress-induced symptoms.9–13 Various concepts and
sources of resilience have been put forward. Some researchers
argue that social context (e.g., external support) should be
included in the concept of resilience,12,14,15 whereas others
propose that the source of resilience is exclusively “within the
person.”10 Furthermore, some view the resilience concept as
a human factor,9 while others view it as a response to a
particularly stressful or traumatic event.16
Although researchers cannot agree on just one definition for
the resilience concept, one common conceptualization, and the
one that will be used in this study, they are viewing resilience
as a set of personal characteristics or individual variables, that
protect well-being in stressful situations.9 In previous research,
resilience has typically been conceptualized through the use of
a variety of different proxy variables.17 The present study
builds upon this research by concentrating on the role of
specific individual characteristics—personality, hardiness, and
coping—in the resilience concept.
Personality
Numerous researchers have demonstrated that an individual’s
personality can be separated into five distinct dimensions,
or factors, what is now known as the Five Factor Model
of personality.18 According to this model, individual
differences in personality may be described along the factors
of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness
to experience, and extraversion.19 Some argue that the Big
Five Model can be used to differentiate between resilient
and vulnerable individuals.20,21 Resilience was found to be
linked to emotional stability, extraversion, openness to new
experiences,22 conscientiousness,22–24 and agreeableness.23,25
Furthermore, research conducted with military personnel
showed that certain personality characteristics are associated
with poorer psychological well-being and adjustment in the
military.26 Specifically, the authors found that neuroticism
had a negative impact on adjustment to military life,
interfering with occupational functioning. Given the important role of
personality—especially neuroticism—in the military context,
many research (...truncated)