Have you ever wondered why two soldiers who go through the exact same traumatic experience can have two totally different reactions to that experience, both short and long term? Doctors Alla Skomorovsky and Sonya Stevens certainly have, and together they have come up with some fascinating research on the mind of the average soldier. Having deployed myself, and knowing other people who have deployed, I found this article to be very interesting. Although my tour was very low-intensity compared to other's experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can still relate (at least partially) to what goes through the mind of a deployed soldier. Dr. Skomorovsky's research looks very promising in identifying soldiers who may be high-risk for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other related mental illnesses before they ever ship out for deployment. .
Dr. Skomorovsky designed a questionnaire that was taken by Canadian officer candidates as part of their basic training testing. The test was designed to measure coping ability, neuroticism, life satisfaction, general health, and military hardiness. These five factors made up the concept of resiliency. The hypothesis was that soldiers with a healthier overall resilience would be able to handle high-stress situations and traumatic events, and not be affected by them (too negatively) later on in life The recruits' service and medical records were tracked throughout their career and compared to their initial scores to determine if the research proved the hypothesis.
The hypothesis was definitely correct "It was found that an intensive coping-skills training program was effective in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms and promoting healthy coping behaviors among military personnel." (Skomorovsky, 2013) Recruits who had high coping and hardiness scores were able to "bounce back" from traumatic experiences that caused disorders in recruits who had low scores in those areas It was also found that training in these areas was usually beneficial Training on productive coping helped soldiers deal with stress in a positive way rather than a negative way, so that stress was reduced rather than increased.