Work Stress in the Military: Prevalence, Causes, and Relationship to Emotional Health

Abstract

Authors alone are responsible for opinions expressed in the contribution and for its clearance through their federal health agency, if required.NUMBER 11 MILITARY MEDICINE, 167, 11:877,2002 Work fering from significant work stress, 15% reported that work stress was causing them significant emotional distress, and 8% reported experiencing work stress that was severe enough to be damaging their emotional health. Generic work stressors were endorsed more frequently than military-specific stressors. Conclusions: More than one-quarter of this sample of military personnel reported suffering from significant work stress and a significant number of these individuals suffered serious emotional distress. These results support previous research suggesting that work stress may be a significant occupational health hazard in the u.s. military.

Occupational Stress in Naval Personnel

“…Similarly depression in navy recruits has been linked to loneliness, higher levels of stress, more life change units, lower sense of belonging, emotion oriented coping and less task oriented coping [5]. A recent study [6], has reported that military personnel have higher job stress than their civilian counterparts. 26% of the service men reported significant work stress, 15% reported that work stress led to emotional distress and 8% claimed that work stress was severe enough to affect their emotional health.…”

Effects of Deployments on Homestation Job Stress and Burnout

“…Studies have shown that stress in the military is caused by a myriad of problems common to the civilian sector rather than military-specific stressors such as deployments Pflanz & Sonnek, 2002). In addition research conducted by Etzion and colleagues (1998) showed that reserve service, which has many similarities to active duty deployments, resulted in a decrease in job stress and burnout when the reservists returned to their civilian jobs.…”

“…Indeed, the deployees showed significant decreases in both emotional exhaustion and burnout when they returned to their homestation job from a deployment. Therefore, the strains of emotional exhaustion and burnout within the military are not likely to be a result of military specific stressors such as a deployment, but more than likely a result of problems common to the civilian sector such as work overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity (Pflanz & Sonnek, 2002).…”

“…Additional studies have shown that soldiers who are suffering from stress are not blaming military-specific stressors such as deployments, frequent relocations, and non-voluntary assignments. Instead, soldiers suffering from stress are citing problems more common to the civilian world such as changes in work responsibility, increased work hours, and the type of work (Pflanz & Sonnek, 2002).…”

Percepción de la calidad de vida y la salud mental en oficiales de la Fuerza Aérea Colombiana

“…Con personal activo, igualmente, se han realizado varios estudios que abordan diferentes aspectos de la salud del personal militar tales como trastornos psiquiátricos (12,23), mortalidad por lesiones (24), estrés ocupacional (25,26), salud mental (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32) Un aspecto importante menos mencionado o mencionado indirectamente en los estudios americanos e ingleses es el de la calidad de vida. El concepto de calidad de vida se ha estudiado desde una perspectiva biomédica, psicológica y social, y se ha definido, principalmente desde un punto subjetivo, como la percepción de las personas sobre diversos ámbitos de sus vidas, destacando la relevancia del contexto social, cultural y del sistema de valores en el que experimentan su vida cotidiana (41).…”