Hardiness Protects Against War-Related Stress in Army Reserve Forces

As active-duty forces continue to shrink in the post-Cold War military, reserve and National Guard units play an increasingly important role in deployments of all types. When mobilized for deployment, reservists may experience a range of major life stressors in addition to the stressors encountered in the area of military operations. Although previous studies show ill effects of stress on some of these personnel, few studies have sought to explain the continued good health and stress resiliency displayed by the majority of veterans. This study examined personality hardiness as a potential protective variable among Army reserve personnel mobilized for the Persian Gulf War. Regression results showed hardiness interacted with both combat-related stress and stressful life events to predict psychiatric symptoms on several measures. The pattern of results suggested hardiness protects against the ill effects of stress, particularly under high- and multiple-stress conditions. These results have implications for preventing the ill effects of stress across a variety of occupations that can expose workers to multiple stressors, including job disruption and family separation.