Negotiating home base: Narratives of psychological well-being among female military members

Abstract

The current study aimed to understand how active duty service women with low levels of current psychological distress make sense of their military experiences in ways that might contribute to psychological well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with active duty female members in the Canadian Forces and transcripts were analyzed using narrative analysis. A sense of belonging was found to be of utmost salience to the women, with several participants negotiating and constructing places that felt like home to them, and with different degrees of attachment to the military versus civilian world. The findings of this work are discussed within the context of focusing prevention and intervention efforts on increasing belongingness and a sense of home for female service members.