The Wellbeing of Italian Peacekeeper Military: Psychological Resources, Quality of Life and Internalizing Symptoms

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Yura Loscalzo¹  Marco Giannini¹  Alessio Gori²  Annamaria Di Fabio³ 

[1] Department of Health Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy;Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy;Psychology Section, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy;

关键词: military psychiatry;    peacekeeping operations;    psychological resources;    PTSD;    internalizing symptoms;    quality of life;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00103

 received in 2017-07-12, accepted in 2018-01-22,  发布年份 2018

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Working as a peacekeeper is associated with the exposure to acute and/or catastrophic events and chronic stressors. Hence, the meager literature about peacekeepers’ wellbeing has mainly analyzed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study aims to deep the analysis of the wellbeing of peacekeepers military. Based on the few studies on this population, we hypothesized that Italian peacekeeper military officers and enlisted men (n = 167; 103 males, 6 females, 58 missing) exhibit lower levels of internalizing symptoms (i.e., PTSD, depression, general anxiety, obsessions, and somatization) as compared to a control group (n = 60; 32 males, 28 females). Moreover, we hypothesized that peacekeepers have higher levels of psychological resources (i.e., self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support) and quality of life (i.e., higher life satisfaction and lower general stress). We compared the groups by means of MANOVAs on the subscales of the Psychological Treatment Inventory (PTI; Gori et al., 2015). We found that Italian peacekeepers have lower internalizing symptoms and higher levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem than the control group; however, no statistically significant differences were observed on perceived social support. Finally, peacekeepers have a higher quality of life: scores reflect higher life satisfaction and lower distress than the control group. This study is in line with previous literature supporting the claim that Italian peacekeeper military officers have sufficient psychological resources for coping with the stressful situations implied in peacekeeping missions. Future studies should deepen the analysis of the military’s psychological characteristics by comparing war veterans and peacekeeper military.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2018 Loscalzo, Giannini, Gori and Di Fabio.