Readiness, resilience, and readjustment: a psychological investigation of human factors across the deployment cycle of contemporary peace support operations

Contemporary peacekeeping missions are complex, demanding, and potentially hazardous. There is general agreement that psychological factors are crucial to effective individual and collective performance of the military personnel deployed in support of these missions. This research has examined the human dimensions associated with capability, functioning, and health across the deployment cycle. The aim of this research was to increase understanding of the psychological issues associated with peace support operations at the individual, group, and organisational levels. The study applied precepts of the transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) to the context of military deployment on peace support operations. The overarching Human Dimensions of Operations model for this research incorporated stressor, buffer, and outcome components within the multi-level structure of the military organisation and across the stages (pre, peri, post) of deployment. Participants were Canadian and Australian military personnel deployed on Peace Support Operations. The dissertation comprised seven chapters. Chapter One provided an introduction to the psychological challenges posed by peace support operations and the research opportunities these missions afford. The second chapter detailed the methodology and psychometric evaluation of several measurement scales that were developed as part of this research in order to address the unique characteristics of peace support operations. Each of the six scales examined proved to have a meaningful component structure and adequate subscale reliabilities. The third chapter was devoted to an examination of the psychometric properties of a measure of psychological climate factors, the Unit Climate Profile (UCP), which was the cornerstone instrument of this research. The UCP demonstrated a robust, multi-dimensional structure that was conceptually concordant with its theoretical development and design. In addition, the component structure of the UCP changed in meaningful ways according to its level of analysis - individual or group. The next three chapters examined human dimension constructs at different stages of deployment, notably psychological readiness for operations, psychological resilience during deployment, and readjustment following return from deployment. In Chapter Four, the most compelling structural model that examined collective psychological readiness demonstrated that perceptions of readiness at the group level, along with effective senior leadership, could significantly impact morale. The results in Chapter Five revealed that leadership both buffered the immediate impact of stressors, and also fostered meaning and morale, thereby reducing strain. Positive aspects of deployment and the personal meaning assumed to be derived from these experiences were also found to bolster morale significantly during deployment. In Chapter Six, the stressors specific to the postdeployment transition phase, rather than stressors encountered during deployment, had the strongest impact on postdeployment adjustment. Social support and a positive psychological climate in the unit (particularly evidenced by cohesiveness and caring behaviour by proximal leaders) moderated the impact of homecoming stressors. A concluding chapter summarised the dissertation and discussed its practical significance and avenues for the dissemination of its findings. Broadly, the outcomes demonstrated that an understanding of the human factors in military units within the context of the stressors-strain relationship can provide potentially useful information to commanders who want to enhance the well-being, performance, and commitment of Service members deployed on peace support operations.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- School of Psychology, 200