AARMS
MEDICINE
Vol. 9, No. 1 (2010) 87–105
Comparative analysis of stress and coping features of
Hungarian soldiers serving in missions
ZSUZSANNA SZILÁGYI,a ISTVÁN KOPCSÓ,b CSILLA CSUKONYI,c ANDRÁS NÉMETHa
a
‘Dr.György Radó’ Military Medical Centre, Hungarian Defence Forces, Budapest, Hungary
b NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine, Budapest, Hungary
c Institute of Psychology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
The Institute of Health Protection (IHP) of the Hungarian Defence Forces deals with
the mental state of military personnel, preventive measures in this regard, and
improving coping ability of the soldiers. Within that, the Institute is responsible for the
psychological preparations of the personnel for mission duties and aims to strengthen
such personality factors by psychological methods which help adjustment to special
situations during these missions, since those belong to their main tasks. For the sake of
the abovementioned tasks we conducted a research on personality traits common in
Hungarian military personnel that took part in different missions to reveal the
differences concerning each mission (OIF, MFOR, SFOR, KFOR), and identified the
general psychological factors playing important roles concerning stress and coping.
We aimed to assess and compare the psychological status of soldiers serving in
missions, and reveal the psychological background of personality and behavioral
differences appearing, to map and organize those abilities and personality components
based on which we can clearly define those personal competencies which are able to
fulfill the requirements and challenges of mission tasks and to work out the goaloriented revision of the psychological preparation and reintegration trainings’ topics
and methodology. The research was conducted at different mission places (before the
end of the 6-month-long period of mission services) from the year of 2004. 384 soldiers
participated in the research (OIF, KFOR, SFOR, MFOR). Mean age was 28.5 years.
Psychological tests (Big Five Questionnaire - BFQ, Coping Test, Well-Being Test, PIC,
SEMIQ, Mission symptoms and Stress Questionnaires) were used. Processing was done
by multi-angled statistical analysis: with regression and variance-analyses.
The research set up the collection of psychological factors that can be suitable for
declaring one’s special promotion for mission service. The identified psychological
background factors that have a role in the appearance of mission symptoms and in the
development of stress straining are: emotional and impulse control (pA0.001),
cooperativeness (pA0.000), support-seeking behavior (pA0.000), tension control
Received: April 28, 2010
Address for correspondence:
ANDRÁS NÉMETH
E-mail: [email protected]
ZS. SZILÁGYI et al.: Stress and coping features of Hungarian soldiers
(pA0.002), feeling of competence (pA0.001), satisfaction with performance (pA0.000)
and the level of frustration toleration (pA0.000).
On the basis of the significant results of the recent research the method of personal
selection for international military service has been reconstructed according to the
personal competence. We have also integrated the improvement of the revealed
protective psychological factors into the thematic of missionary trainings in order to
help Hungarian soldiers to preserve their mental health within mission circumstances
to fulfill challenging professional expectations and for promoting their healthy
reintegration into the military organization in Hungary and back into their families.
Introduction
The recent study strives to report on personality traits characterizing Hungarian military
personnel taking part in different missions that show difference concerning each
mission, and identified general psychological factors and their role concerning stress
and coping. Taking the range of duties specified by MC 326/2,1 AJP 4.10(A)2 and the
related lower level series of AJMedPs3 and STANAGs.4
Amongst its other tasks and responsibilities, the IHP handles mental state of military
personnel, its prevention, and improving their mental coping ability with most
importance. Therefore psychological preparation for duties of the personnel serving in
missions belongs to the main tasks of the IHP. The aim of this preparation is to
strengthen those personality factors by psychological methods which help adjustment to
special situations during serving in missions. To reach this aim mentioned above we
conducted our research to create an even more effective professional methodology.
The aim of the research was to find psychological factors that are typical and
different for each mission and to highlight the identified general psychological features
and their roles concerning stress and coping (EPSTEIN, 1992). Furthermore, revealing
differences and similarities of psychological and behavioral background appearing in
the results, moreover to map and determine those abilities and personality components
we can build on in order to determine exactly the requirements and challenges of a
mission task which a person can fulfil based on his personal competence.
We also aimed to assess and compare the psychological status of soldiers serving in
missions, to reveal the psychological background of personality and behavioral
1
NATO Principles and Policies of Operational Medical Support, Brussels, April 2007
Allied Joint Medical Support Doctrine, Brussels, March 2006
3 Allied Joint Medical Publications
4 Standardization Agreements
2
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differences and similarities appearing in the results and to use the results of the research
for successful and effective mission preparation trainings in the future.
Our hypothesis preceding the research:
1. Which personality factors are the most significant ones concerning suitability for
the deployments?
2. By which psychological instruments can these personality features be tested in
the most reliable way?
3. What sort of role do these identified personality background factors have in
appearance of mission symptoms and in the development of stress strain?
Methods
384 soldiers participated in the research including 145 persons (38%) of the OIF
mission, 141 persons (37%) of the KFOR mission, 78 persons (20%) of the SFOR
mission, 20 persons (5%) of the MFOR mission concerning gender difference there
were 369 male (96%) and 15 female (4%) soldiers participating in the research. The
mean age of the sample was 28.5 years, 42 persons (11%) have degree in higher
education, 316 persons (83%) have secondary school education, and 24 persons (6%)
have lower education.
The data were collected anonymously at different missionary places applying
psychological tests. Test-processing was conducted by multi-angled statistical analysis:
with regression and variance analyses.
By applying questionnaire method we assessed the direction and strength of
struggling (coping) and well-being, and typical personality changes, the differences in
handling stressful situations which provided a multi-angled analysis. Psychological tests
included the measurement of directions, strength of typical personality, coping, and
well-being changes during mission service, evaluating significant difference occurring
when coping with stress.
The applied questionnaires, scales and tests
Big Five Questionnaire:
Dimensions (16): dynamism (for ex.: “Am an active, vivid person”), dominance (“Am
always self-confident”), cooperativeness (reverse-item: “Feel little concern for others”),
politeness (reverse-item. “Insult others”), scrupulousness (for ex.: “Pay attention to the
details”), perseverance (for ex.: “When decided something to do, carrying it out”), Lack
of emotional control (for ex.: “Get stressed out easily”), Lack of impulse control (for
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ex.: “Worry about things”), Openness to Culture (for ex.: “Being amazed by distant
cultures”), Openness to experiences (for ex.: “Like to be informed in themes where not
interested”), Social desirability (for ex.: Never lie), Energy (for ex.: Am the life of the
party), Friendliness (for ex.: “Sympathize with others’ feelings”), Conscientiousness
(for ex.: (consist of exactness and holding out) “Would do anything to mark out”),
Emotional Instability (for ex.: “Have frequent mood swings”), Openness (connected
with intelligence and education) for ex.: “Have a rich vocabulary”).
This questionnaire is based on the five main factors that consist of the characteristics of
personality (GOLDBERG, 1990). Each of its five main dimensions could be divided into 2
sub-dimensions and in order to screen the person’s desire to satisfy the social expectations
a social desirability scale is also built in the test (COSTA and MCCRAE, 1992).
Coping strategy preference Test:
This questionnaire has been developed to identify the person’s preferred coping
strategies (FOLKMAN, 1984).
Dimensions (8): problem-centered reaction (constructive coping) for example: “I
will take all possible solutions into consideration, that can help me to handle the
problem”, seeking support for ex.: “I will talk to somebody who can take concrete steps
to handle the problem”, control of psychological tension for ex.: “I try to see the
situation from a distance in order to be objective”, cognitive avoidance for ex.: “I will
look for another activities to get rid of the worries”, emotion-focus for ex.: “I try to do
different things to feel myself better”, emotion ventilation (acting out) for ex.: “I let my
emotions to flow free”, self-punishment (self-blame) for ex.: “I will put the blame on
myself”, acceptance for ex.: “I accept that I have to live with my problem together.”
Psychological Well-Being Test:
This questionnaire has been developed to map the whole spectrum of psychological wellbeing. It consists of one’s acceptance, the positive evaluation of one’s past, the continuous
experience of personal growth, the possessing of valuable human relationships, and of the
conviction that one’s life follows meaningful aims, that one could accomplish in an
autonomic way with controlling one’s environment (GROB, 1994).
Dimensions (6): self-acceptance for ex.: “I like most sides of my personality”,
positive human (interpersonal) relationships for ex.: (reverse question) “I don’t
experience too much warmth and trust in my interpersonal relationships”, autonomy for
ex.: “I judge myself after my own scale of values and not after what the others think to
be important”, environment control (competence) for ex.: “Generally I feel I am
responsible for the situations I am involved”, life targets (aims in life) for ex.: “When
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I’m looking back to my life I could say, I’m satisfied with the way things have gone”,
personal growth for ex.: “Life is a continuous process of learning, changing and
improving for me.”
Psychological Immune System Questionnaire (trait):
This questionnaire aims at mapping the dimensions of so-called psychological immune
system and to test the person’s actual state (OLÁH, 1998).
Dimensions (19): positive thinking (for ex.: “I am full of optimism”), sense of
control (for ex.: “I feel I can control what is happening to me”), sense of coherence (its
3 components: perceptiveness, ability to handle the allocations, senses) (for ex.: “I think
what is happening to me, is meaningful and consequent”, creative self-concept (for ex.:
“I am proud of and admire myself”), sense of self-growth (for ex.: “I feel I am opened
to changes and to new thoughts”), change and challenge orientation, (for ex.: “When I
think about the challenges and unexpected difficulties in my life, I think they are tests
that can help me to improve”) social monitoring capacity (for ex.: “I have a good sense
to know what to expect from the others”), problem solving capacity (for ex.: “I am good
at jobs, where new and original ideas needed”), self-efficacy (for ex.: I can definitely
reach my goals”), social mobilizing capacity (for ex.: I can creatively convince the
others to give new and original ideas”), social creativeness capacity (for ex.: “The
others can effectively join my ideas, and they make them to think about”), synchronicity
(for ex.: “Self-control is not a problem for me”), goal orientation (for ex.: “When I start
something, I know T can finish it”), impulse control (for ex.: reverse-item: “When
something occurs to me I must tell it right away”), emotional control (for ex.: reverseitem: “When I have decided something and it doesn’t go that way I become angry”),
irritability (for ex.: “I feel nervous and irritated”), approach believe (secondary scale)
(comes from the following scales: positive thinking, sense of control, sense of
coherence, sense of self-growth, change and challenge orientation, sympathy and social
monitoring, capacity of steadiness), Monitoring, Creating and Executing (secondary
scale) (comes from the following scales: self-respect (creative self-concept), problem
solving capacity, self-efficacy, social mobilizing capacity, social reaction (creativeness)
capacity, self regulating (system) (secondary scale) (comes from the following scales:
synchronicity, impulse control, emotional control, irritability).
SEMIQ – Social Emotional Intelligence Scale:
This is a semi-projective questionnaire to test social and emotional intelligence. The
tested person has to react to pictures with one of the five given answers that are most
characteristic (OLÁH, 1998).
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Dimensions (10): sensitivity (people with high level of sensitivity expecting that the
situations they are involved can become wrong and they are preparing for the worst and
for the danger. They are always full of anxiety), lack of willpower and impulse control
(people with high level of lack of willpower and impulse control are hardly tolerating
frustration and bad at fortitude), emotional incompetence (people with high level of
emotional incompetence get depressed easily when something goes wrong), lack of
sympathy (empathy) and egoism (people with high level of lack of sympathy and
egoism are egoistic and feel little concern for others), social incompetence (people with
high level of social incompetence are isolated and introverted unsuccessful at building
social relationships), constructive coping (people with high level of constructive coping
show problem-centered, constructive behavior in stressful situations), avoidance and
need for social support (people with high level of avoidance and need for social support
are tend to avoid fights and in stressful situations they have an extreme high level of
anxiety so they have to leave the situation), aggressive behavior (people with high level
of aggressive behavior in stressful situation and in conflicts tend to react aggressively),
self-regulation capacity (people with high level of self-regulation capacity tend to have
control over their emotional tension in a stressful situation and have strong self-control),
self-punishment (people with high level of self punishment are tend to blame
themselves in a conflict situation. They tend to be passive and believe that their life is
full of strokes of fates).
Social Intelligence Questionnaire:
The main component of social intelligence is the ability of how fast and correct can one
grip and comprehend what is exactly happening in a complex social situation – from the
motives of the participants to the perception and recording of the prevalence of
interaction through the apprehension of the proximity and distances between them. The
SIQ test is examining the ability of drawing the conclusion of a social situation from its
context and how one can conclude the continuation of it that is how successful a person
is in foretelling what to expect in a situation from the persons one is in interaction. The
clear and exact action plan, that uses adequately all experiences of the social situation
that are reflecting the context in a realistic way is a precondition to have control over
the situation. This questionnaire examines only one dimension with 14 questions
(O’SULLIVAN and GUILFORD, 1989).
Missioner symptoms Scale:
The items of this scale shows, how often the tested person felt the so missionary
symptoms under one’s missionary duty (OLÁH, 2002).
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The symptoms are the following: fatigue, dispiritedness, disgust, boredom, irritation,
attention disturbances, anxiety, nervousness, sleeping disorders, headache, gastricdisorders, absent-mindedness, dizziness, being defatigable, inappetence or gluttony,
unable to decide, circulatory problems, heavier smoking, heavier drinking, unable to
relax, feeling of incompetence.
Stress-presence Scale:
The stress presence questionnaire shows, which one of the stress factors characterized
and to what extent the tested persons missionary duty (OLÁH, 2002).
The factors were the following: pressure of time, injustice, race, responsibility,
unexpectedness, occupational conflict, conflicts in human relationships, the discordance
of job and personal life, pressure of profession, discrimination, and physical conditions of
the environment, lack of reinforcement, lack of personal growth, and lack of information.
Stress-load Scale:
The stress-load questionnaire shows to what extent tested persons felt each of the above
quoted factors stressful. They have to mark it on the scales of the questionnaire
(OLÁH, 2002).
The factors were the following: pressure of time, injustice, race, responsibility,
unexpectedness, occupational conflict, conflicts in human relationships, the discordance
of job and personal life, pressure of profession, discrimination, and physical conditions of
the environment, lack of reinforcement, lack of personal growth, and lack of information.
Results
In the following part the figures show the results of comparative analyses. The line of T
Score 50 signifies the value measured for average Hungarian population, the inner blue
broken band inside shows the absolute normal domain, the red broken outer band both
side shows the still acceptable domain. Blue line means military serving in OIF; the red
line refers to other personnel.
Both BFQ profiles (red and blue lines as well) show T Score values above the
average comparing to the Hungarian average (Figure 1). It can be concluded that the
personnel are dynamic, cooperative, disciplined, having strong emotional control and
are open to accepting new experiences. It is worth noticing they have a high level of
self-control as well.
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Figure 1. Differences between missions according to “Big Five - BFQ” results
Comparing the BFQ mean lines, we can see that soldiers of the OIF mission have a
higher level of dynamism, they are more active and seek for stimulus. Moreover, they
are the ones who are more cooperative and have a higher level of accuracy and
perseverance. Personnel taking part in the OIF mission follow world events more
closely, are more open to new things, and have a higher level of tolerance towards being
different – all this open-mindedness is visible in the dimensions – openness to culture,
openness to experiences. There is one more important thing in the chart that is worth
paying attention to, namely that the OIF mission soldiers strongly control their emotions
and have a high level of impulse control.
We examined coping strategies and preferred situation solving methods in case of
more difficult adjusting conditions (Figure 2). Soldiers appointed to missions take
cognitive avoidance more than the average and they are less emotion focused as well.
We can see the same as in the BFQ results, that the control is too strong. Deliberate
avoiding of self-blame – a balancing mechanism – it is much lower than the average. It
means that soldiers feel about negative events as independent experiences from them.
They do not feel responsibility. This can be an act of compensation of not agreeing with
aggressive acts. Or this is simply the outcome of a successful socialization in the army –
so the commander is the one who is responsible.
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Figure 2. Differences between missions according to Coping results
The next chart (Figure 3) shows the soldiers’ experience of subjectively considered
psychological well-being, which shows a remarkably better picture compared to the
average population. In the dimension of constructive coping soldiers serving in OIF
missions show a significantly higher level, which means that in case of conflict they
want to handle the problem, meaning: to change the problematic situation. It is obvious
that their tension control will also be higher because basically they want to keep the
stability of their personalities. Soldiers of other missions are more likely to
psychologically step out of the situation, have cognitive avoidance, and emotion
focused problem solving, meaning that they rather make efforts to stop the nasty
emotional state than to the problem itself. But comparing to the average population they
are less likely to use emotion focused problem solving behavior. This higher value can
also be seen at acting out, which is nothing else but the person’s uncontrolled emotional
reaction, but it is in the normal domain of course. Self-blaming as a coping dimension is
much lower comparing to the average population that means that they experience
negative evens as independent from them. So the conclusion is that the socialization
process of the army was successful as the commander is responsible for everything on
his own.
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Figure 3. Differences between missions according to Well-being
Basically, though psychological well-being fluctuates depending on living
conditions there are some personality factors that guarantee permanent well-being. The
result we got: autonomy, good interpersonal relations, feeling of personal growth,
definite life target and self-acceptance are good signs of efficient adjustment/coping.
To understand this phenomenon it is worth considering all well-being dimensions
one by one.
The profiles of soldiers in OIF and other missions show almost the same formation
with the difference that soldiers in OIF mission have a significantly higher level of
psychological well-being. It is worth examining for all six dimensions. Concerning selfacceptance they can be characterized by positive attitude towards themselves, both in
past and present. According to the dimension of positive interpersonal relationships,
attention, trust, and caring about others are important for the group. For them social
surroundings mean the unit with which they serve. For the autonomy dimension
internally controlled behavior and own measure-scale are typical. Concerning
competence it can be seen that mission soldiers have a strong feeling of competence,
meaning that they are able to control and influence their surroundings. They improve
their surroundings while satisfying their personal demands at the same time. In case of
life targets OIF mission soldiers reach a significantly higher level, meaning that they
have a remarkably high commitment and believe in rationally predictable future events.
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Personal growth dimension reached a very high level at OIF missioners which shows
that this area is extremely important for them. Most probably that is the real motivation.
This personal improvement refers to their profession and personality as well.
The following test results assessing the soldiers’ actual psychological status (Figure
4), which was not different from the average population, although the features of the
two sample systems significantly differ.
Figure 4. Differences between missions according to Psychological Immune-competence
We investigated which are the personality factors that guarantee coping capacity.
The results of PIC show that the personnel’s ability of tolerating stress, apart from
persistence is better than the Hungarian average. This can be explained by the fact that
the test shows an actual state and the time of taking was at the end of the 6-month-long
mission service period. So their coping with difficulties could even mean an already
finished achievement. The importance of the rest you may know from your own
experiences: positive thinking, self-respect, flexibility, seeking for challenges, feeling of
self-efficiency. Positive thinking, sense of control, sense of coherence (finding, and
organizing surrounding events), and creative self-concept are typically high in the OIF
mission. Then it can be seen that in change and challenge orientation dimensions there
is also a peak for the OIF mission. The shape of the diagram is also similar in the
following dimensions such as social monitoring capacity, problem solving capacity, and
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self-efficacy, social mobilizing capacity, and social reaction capacity. It is very
interesting how the level of goal orientation stays below average. It can be explained by
that the test shows a current status and the testing time is at the end of the 6-month-long
serving period. Therefore coping with all the obstacles can even mean an already
finished achievement.
SEMIQ measures (Figure 5) the capacity of controlling emotions through
willpower. Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) is the ability to understand situations
according to their real emotional meaning, not driven by our own emotional status. The
test reveals the lack of these competencies. The personnel have an EQ equivalent to the
Hungarian average. Except of the need for social support signifies that in stressful
situations soldiers may experience stronger anxiety that they can only manage by
stepping out of the situation (the same as cognitive avoidance at the coping-test). Lack
of empathy is also a bit higher – we will have to pay more attention on that during
psychological trainings. Self-regulatory capacity is also outstanding – which is equal to
self-control at BFQ (“Big Five”).
Figure 5. Differences between missions according to Social and Emotional Intelligence
Higher self-regulatory capacity at OIF mission soldiers can mean that their tension
enduring capacity and their strength of ego are above average have already appeared in
other tests. Need for social support at other missions is also to point out, so typically
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they may feel anxiety stronger in stressful situations, which they can only cope with by
stepping out of the situation. The followings on the list are average: sensitivity, lack of
impulse control, and emotional incompetency. Development of social and emotional
intelligence – which is an important expectation from the personnel – is a learnable and
increasable part of the personality.
On the next comparative analysis of mission symptoms are as follows (Figure 6).
The items of the scale show how often examined soldiers felt the following mission
symptoms. These symptoms are always subjective and disturbing for them.
Figure 6. Differences between missions according to Mission symptoms
This way we could find the answer about how efficiently the personnel can solve the
problems of mission life. We measured mission symptoms: the scale of the relative
incidence of psychic and somatic symptoms can be seen. It can be seen that the
symptoms were less likely to occur among OIF personnel, although there were
parallelisms in how the set of symptoms form. These are tiredness, dejection, attention
deficit, anxiety, nervousness, stomach ache, dizziness, eating disorder, increased
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smoking, increased drinking behavior, and lack of relaxation. Not necessarily
significant but worth attention: dejection, boredom, and irritation are much lower in the
OIF mission sample but in case of other missions boredom appears as the loading
factor. By the way the level of nervousness, tiredness and increased smoking is
remarkably higher in other mission samples.
The comparative analysis of stress appearance results at soldiers of OIF and other
missions:
Figure 7. Differences between missions according to Stress factors (stress-presence)
Presence of stress was detected among the personnel: on Figure 7 it can be seen the
intensity of stress factors in missions. Soldiers serving in OIF defined presence of stress
factors on a lower level. The previous results of the research also supported this
outcome as well. Unpredictability and responsibility were marked as appearing stress
factors on the highest level. Some parallelisms can be experienced between the two
samples concerning realizing stress factors such as competition, and conflicts of work
and private life. In other missions the presence of conflict between work and private life
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is a more serious problem. Low payment as stress factor is also extremely high at
soldiers in other missions.
The Figure 8 shows the results of the comparative analysis of stress straining.
Figure 8. Differences between missions according to Stress-straining results
First and last it seems that stress and coping with tension cause less problems and
difficulties for soldiers in the mission of OIF. The most significant difference between
the two samples is related to payment. Those who serve in other missions feel low
payment significantly more straining. Further big differences are in the strains of
unfairness, and conflict of work and private life. It is interesting that discrimination also
mean more strain for soldiers serving in other missions than for the sample serving in
OIF mission. The opinion of the two samples only comes closer in judging strains of
competition and physical conditions.
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Summary
Connection between psychological factors and stress features
The results of mission symptoms, presence of stress and stress strain show that strain
caused by stress (tension) lessens when the personnel are satisfied with their own
achievements. Stress strain grows whenever conflict of cultural differences appears in
the personality structure. Moreover, lower level of the frustration tolerance results in
smaller strain of stressors. It also must be mentioned that the higher empathy level
lowers the stress strains. The strain decreasing solutions mostly used among Hungarian
soldiers are seeking for social support and increasing of bad habits (e.g. smoking).
Mission symptoms seem to grow by appearance of social relation of family conflicts
(WATSON and PENNEBAKER, 1989). Generally the more satisfied the soldier with his/her
performance, the lower level of stressors he/she reports about. It means that constant
evaluation of performance during service may be conductive to successful treatment of
strain of the soldiers. Then we also saw, that the problem of handling differences caused
by cultural divergence resulted in raised stress strain. Seeking for social support proved
to be the most strain-decreasing method in the sample. Then came smoking as a straindecreasing method. Another important thing should also be mentioned: soldiers
reported about family problems during mission service had a remarkably higher level of
mission symptoms.
Significant relations of „Big Five” (BFQ) dimensions with mission symptoms:
Lack of emotion and impulse control increases experiencing mission symptoms, but
high level of conscientiousness decreases experiencing mission symptoms to minimum.
Cooperativeness (stress presence test) decreases stress strain, and those who have more
balanced emotional control are more tolerant and experience less stress strain.
Additionally, the high level of lack of impulse control causes experiencing stronger
tension. According to stress strain - lack of emotion control: soldiers reaching a high
level are often strained, anxious and nervous, so they cope with stress in a harder way.
We also highlighted significant relationship between the mission symptoms and the
BFQ dimensions. The higher the soldiers’ lack of emotion control and lack of impulse
control are, the stronger they experience mission symptoms. More conscientious
soldiers report about much less mission symptoms.
There is clear relationship between the presence of stress strain and BFQ dimensions
as well: cooperative and balanced soldiers will suffer less from tension caused by
stressors. Those who lose self-control in difficult situations experience stronger tension
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caused by stressors. Soldiers having a high value of lack of emotional control are often
strained, anxious, and nervous because they cope with strain by stressors with more
difficulties.
Significant relations of coping results are as follows:
The more the personality is able to exercise tension control the less mission symptoms
appear. Uncontrollable acting out of tension leads to appearance of mission symptoms.
Increasing in acting out is directly related to appearance caused by stress tension.
Emotion focused coping (targeting stopping uncomfortable emotional state, not
declining the problem) leads to dealing with stressors in a harder manner, which causes
extra stress for the body. The more a soldier is able to control tension the less mission
symptoms appear. If soldiers act out tension by any uncontrolled, not appropriate
emotional reactions, they experience strain caused by stressors much stronger. Higher
level of emotion focused coping leads to experiencing harder stressors.
Significant relations of well-being dimensions:
Experiencing positive interpersonal relationships decreases appearance of mission
symptoms. Strong autonomy leads to strengthening mission symptoms. Strong feeling of
competence decreases strength of mission symptoms. Positive interpersonal relationships
decrease stress appearance. Ambition for autonomy increases sensing stress. Feeling of
competence decreases subjective experiencing of strain caused by stress. High level of
experiencing positive interpersonal relationships prevents from increasing mission
symptoms. Too much emphasis on autonomy may increase perceiving the presence of
stressors. Competence decreases strain caused by stress and subjective tension
experienced by soldiers. On the whole it seems, that stress and coping with tension cause
less problems and difficulties for soldiers in the mission of OIF. The most significant
difference between the two samples was the level of payment. Those who serve in other
missions feel the low payment significantly more straining. Further big differences are in
the strains of unfairness, and conflict of work and private life. It is interesting that
discrimination also mean more strain for soldiers serving in other missions than for the
sample personnel serving in OIF. The opinion of the two samples comes closer mostly in
judging strains of competition and physical conditions.
Conclusions
The identified psychological background factors that have a role in the appearance of
mission symptoms and in the development of stress straining are:
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Emotional and impulse control and handling,
Cooperativeness,
Support-seeking behavior,
High tension control,
Strong feeling of competence,
Satisfaction with performance,
Level of frustration toleration.
We have determined the personality factors that can predict the suitability for
military service. Using the tests have shown in the recent study is the most reliable way
to test the personality factors of suitability in personnel selection.
There is significant difference in personality and behavioral factors among soldiers
serving in different missions. Various special life situations effect soldiers’ personalities
in different directions. We have identified those personality traits to be developed
during personality preparation trainings through which we can perhaps prevent
occurrence of mission symptoms, and we can decrease the need for a post -trauma
training. The method of personal selection for international military service has been
reconstructed according to the personal competence. We have integrated the
improvement of protective psychological factors into the agenda of deployment
trainings. As a conclusion we can claim that in regard the troops serving in deployments
there are significant differences in their personal and behavioral factors (on the basis of
questionnaire methods) depending on their tasks and location. It is proven that special
conditions resulted from various emergency situations have different effects on soldiers
serving indifferent deployments. This tendency appeared by the results of our research
in forms of typical mission symptoms and stress factors. We believe that results of this
study could be successfully used for making the pre-deployment training program more
up-to-date based on the identified psychological background factors, and after,
successfully reinstating them in the national system.
Our objectives were to assist Hungarian soldiers to preserve their mental health and
condition within the circumstances of fulfilling challenging professional expectations,
and to promote their healthy reintegration into their national military organization and
their families as well.
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