Effect of Time of Exposure to Prolonged War on Resilience of Soldiers

Abstract

The armed forces of a country face numerous challenges in their professional lives which affect both their physical and mental health. Literature provides evidence that exposure to war like situations and conflicts exert stress amongst the military personnel. Despite such high intensity conflict situations cases of impaired mental health are low among the armed forces personnel which can be explained as resilient behaviour. Therefore the objective of the present study was to study the effect of time of exposure to prolonged war on the resilience levels of military personnel, specifically the Indian army personnel. The sample of the study included N=106 Indian army personnel serving in the high intensity conflict regions of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The sample was assessed quantitatively using the resilience questionnaire by Lakshmi and Narain and results were calculated. The results were quantitatively analysed using one-way ANOVAstatistical method and it was found that soldiers with 3 to 10 months of exposure to high intensity conflict region had low to average levels of resilience whereas soldiers with 10 to 24months of exposure had resilience levels ranging from average to high. Hence it was revealed that resilience of soldiers with more exposure to prolonged war was higher than those who had less duration of prolonged war. Furthermore, the need for more research in importance of resilience building as part of combat training is discussed in the research.