Organizational Caring as a Predictor of Good Mental Health in an Operational Naval Environment

Military service members encounter numerous stressors that adversely affect their mental health. These pervasive stressors emphasize the need to continually surveil, identify, and mitigate negative factors before they can produce cascading consequences for the individual. The present study utilized a large sample (N = 13,666) to identify several factors that might lead individuals to have poor mental health days in an austere naval operating environment. One quarter of respondents (N = 3,484; 25.49%) indicated that they had 0 poor mental health days in the preceding month, whereas one in eight (N = 1,868; 13.57%) indicated experiencing poor mental health every day in the preceding month. This bimodal distribution allowed for binary logistic regression to determine the relative influence of various factors in identifying individuals who reported significant mental health concerns versus those who did not. Split-half analyses also permitted replication of the data through randomized sampling and dividing data by ship class. Gender emerged as the most prominent predictor of mental health quality with females reporting poorer mental health. Meanwhile, organizational caring (a service member's belief that higher organizational levels cared about them) emerged as a protective factor. Perceptions of caring among the organizational hierarchy depended upon organizational tier; that is, a connection to the larger organization functioned as an even more robust predictor than perceptions that their local and more salient organizational structure (e.g., direct supervisor) cared about them. Taken together, this evidence helps identify factors related to mental health issues that may negatively impact military personnel on active duty. Impact Statement Mental health is a major issue in operational naval environments, with one in eight sailors reporting poor mental health every day in the preceding month. However, an interesting protective factor emerged from analyses here. If sailors believed that the Navy at large cared about them, it significantly reduced the likelihood of reporting poor mental health-more so than even the tangible connection to their supervisor or immediate command.