Promoting Psychological Resilience in the U.S. Military.

TLDR

U.S. service members frequently deploy for extended periods, challenging their coping capacity, and while numerous military and civilian programs aim to foster psychological resilience, little is known about their effectiveness or alignment with evidence‑based resilience factors. The study aimed to help the Department of Defense evaluate how well existing resilience programs address evidence‑based factors and to identify methodologies that could enhance resilience among service members and families. Researchers conducted a focused literature review to identify evidence‑informed resilience factors and then examined a subset of military programs to assess the extent to which those factors were incorporated.

Abstract

As U.S. service members deploy for extended periods on a repeated basis, their ability to cope with the stress of deployment may be challenged. A growing number of programs and strategies provided by the military and civilian sectors are available to encourage and support psychological resilience to stress for service members and families. Though previous research from the field of psychology delineating the factors that foster psychological resilience is available, there has been no assessment of whether and how well the current military resilience programs are addressing these factors in their activities. Further, little is known about the effectiveness of these programs on developing resilience. To assist the Department of Defense in understanding methodologies that could be useful in promoting resilience among service members and their families, the research team conducted a focused literature review to identify evidence-informed factors for promoting psychological resilience. The team also reviewed a subset of military resilience programs to determine the extent to which they included those evidence-informed factors. This article describes the context, approach, and findings from these research activities.