Reserve Military Service: A Social Constructionist Perspective

Abstract

This study examines reserve military service from a perspective of social construction—the ways in which the reservist’s conscious experiences are constructed to give meaning to military service. Content descriptions of conscious experiences of reserve military service are identified in past studies. Constructions fell into four broad categories: (1) complementary to life—reserve military service providing wanted satisfaction not otherwise achieved, material gain, or ideological commitment; (2) equitable arrangement—understood compensation for self-sacrifice; (3) discordant identity—requirements of military life blatantly or surreptitiously conflicting with established identity and civilian life; and (4) self-definition—reserve military service understood as an aspect of self-identity. Directions for integrating these constructions as a basis for future research are identified and discussed.

War and Commitment to Military Service: Deployment and Combat Experiences Associated With Retention Among Army National Guard Soldiers

“…Cognitions are constructed through social interactions during which people develop shared assumptions about what they experience. One social construction of reservists identified by Griffith & Ben-Ari (in press), discordant identity , and to some extent self-definition , help speculate mechanisms involved in the relationship of combat events to continuance of reserve military service.…”

“…Examples here are having experienced combat trauma, having had wounded or killed someone, and having had a friend killed in combat. These events adversely affect reservists’ cognitions regarding reserve military service, such as feelings of patriotism, service to country, pride, belief in morality of just cause, civic responsibility, and sense of agency (see Griffith & Ben-Ari, in press), precipitating moral injury and its negative psychological consequences. Examples of these altered cognitions are illustrated by Held et al (2017), citing experiences of combat veterans:…”

“…The social construction of complementary to life helps elaborate underlying mechanism of these events on reserve military service intentions. For reservists, military service provides wanted satisfaction not otherwise achieved, material gain, or ideological commitment (Griffith & Ben-Ari, in press). Events, such as not having returned to the same civilian job after deployment, having financial difficulties, and having changed lifestyle due to financial problems, cause distress, leading to less satisfactory experiences in military reserve service and in life and less likelihood of continuing military service.…”

Meaning in military service among reservists: Measuring the effect of prosocial motivation in a moderated-mediation model

“…Therefore, future research needs to focus on these factors not in isolation but in synergy while analyzing reservists and reservist military service. In addition, military service is highly related to selfconstruction and self-identity (Griffith and Ben-Ari, 2021); therefore, future research may focus more on what interventions are "changing" identity (Barnett et al, 2021) and contribute to meaning-making in the military context. Values for moderators self-efficacy (SEL) or socio-moral climate (SMC) are presented for ±one SD from the mean; ** signifies a 95% confidence interval for the mediated effect.…”

“Stepping Out” for Military Service: Challenges Experienced by Students Serving in the Reserves or National Guard

“…It is essential that university faculty and staff distinguish among the various groups of MCS (Eagan et al, 2017;Lunceford et al, 2020), as broad policies may not effectively address these students' needs. Students serving in the Reserve Component (RC), in particular, feel that the military and higher education do not adequately address their needs (Griffith & Ben-Ari, 2020). RC personnel receive limited attention from scholars (Griffith & Ben-Ari, 2020), are often treated as an "afterthought" by policy makers (Reserve Officers Association, n.d.), and often do not receive the same support and resources as full-time military personnel or military veterans (Darwin, 2016).…”