TY - JOUR PY - 2011// TI - Psychological adjustment and retention of Australian Army reservists following a stability operation JO - Military medicine A1 - Orme, Geoffrey J. A1 - Kehoe, James SP - 1223 EP - 1231 VL - 176 IS - 11 N2 - Australian Army reservists (n=92) and a comparable group of regulars (n=90) were surveyed at the end of a 7-month deployment on a stability operation in Timor Leste and again approximately 6 months after returning to Australia. Both reservists and regulars displayed sound mental health, as measured by the K10 and PCL-C at both time points. Conversely, both groups reported only low levels of traumatic stress (Traumatic Stress Exposure Scale-Revised) and nontraumatic stress (Major Stressors Inventory). The nontraumatic stress reported by the reservists emanated predominately from work-related frustrations, more so than the regulars. Notwithstanding their reports of work-related stress and only average morale, 65% of the reservists reported that deployment was a positive experience, and 70% continued to render ongoing military service continuously over a 6-year follow-up, significantly more than either the sample of regulars (48%) or projections for reservists (32%). Future directions for research are identified that may promote mental health and retention of reservists.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0026-4075 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -