Exploring the relationship between sense of belonging and perceived well-being in Canadian Army reservists

Abstract

Introduction: Army reservists are embedded in two worlds, one military and another civilian, making them “dual citizens” of two distinct but interconnected communities. This research sought to determine how a sense of belonging to a reserve unit, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and the local community relates to army reservists’ overall well-being. Close attention was paid to the role of social support and resilience as possible mediators in this relationship. Methods: A total of 1,154 CAF army reservists completed a survey assessing their sense of belonging, resilience, social support, and well-being. Path analyses were computed to determine the relationship between sense of belonging (in the community, reserve unit, or CAF) and overall well-being, with resilience and social support as mediators in this relationship. The sample was randomly split in half to determine whether the results of the path analyses could be replicated across two samples. Results: The results of path analyses indicated that reservists who felt a greater sense of belonging to their communities reported higher levels of overall well-being (i.e., direct effect). This relationship was partially due to their higher levels of social support and resilience (i.e., indirect effects). Similar results were not obtained in the case of belonging to one’s reserve unit and the CAF. Findings are explained through the lens of the centrality, or lack of centrality, of reserve identity. Discussion: Findings suggest a sense of belonging to the community plays a positive role in enhancing the well-being of Canadian Army reservists.

Sex and gender: More than just demographic variables

“…Of those articles that did include race, ethnicity, or ethno-cultural identity, these important components of social identity were treated solely as demographic variables, without implementing GBA+ in the analysis. [10][11][12][13][14] Fourteen of the articles were based on data collected in projects with data collection ending in 2016, [10][11][12][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and seven did not clearly indicate when their data were collected, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] raising the question of whether GBA+ was considered when the projects were initially conceived and data collection occurred.…”

“…This conflation of gender with the male/female binary occurred in several other published studies, including studies comparing the prevalence of alcohol use disorders between CAF personnel and the general Canadian population, 24 the connection between social connectedness and perceived well-being in CAF reservists, 30 and validation studies of psychometric tools. [22][23] The lack of GBA+ analysis in these studies, especially the lack of any reference to gender diversity, may be connected to the data sets used in their analyses.…”