Dispositional resilience predicts psychological adaptation of seafarers during and after maritime operations

Background: Seafarers, whether on cargo, fishery, or naval ships, may be exposed to unique and unusualpsychological demands related to the often isolated, confined, and extreme environments associated withocean-going vessels. This necessitates optimal psychological adaptation to maintain individual well-beingduring the mission and afterwards. This study set out to explore whether psychometric measures couldpredict psychological adaptation of seafarers, specifically navy sailors, during and after maritime operations.It used emotional regulation as marker of adaptation, and examined the role of psychometric measuresof dispositional resilience and emotional regulation to predict psychological adaptation at subsequenttime-points.Materials and methods: A total of 168 sailors completed the Brief Sailor Resiliency Scale, DispositionalResilience Scale 15, and Mental Toughness Questionnaire 18 prior to departing for sea, as well as the BrunelMood Scale at 5 time points over a 12-month operational cycle.Results: Higher resilience scores were consistently associated with more adaptive emotional regulation.Multiple linear regressions indicated that the Brief Sailor Resiliency Scale predicted emotional regulationover the shorter term, while the Mental Toughness Questionnaire 18 predicted emotional regulation overthe longer term. Further, mid-mission emotional regulation also predicted emotional regulation at the endof deployments.Conclusions: The findings support several practical applications. Firstly, formal organizational initiatives topromote resilience could be useful to enhance adaptation during and after missions. Secondly, measuringseafarers’ dispositional resilience could allow the streaming of vulnerable individuals towards appropriatemental health support services. Thirdly, past indicators of adaptation could be useful to enhance decision-making regarding subsequent utilisation. This may be applicable to seafarers in both naval servicesand commercial shipping, and to personnel in remote weather stations or other isolated and inaccessibleresearch facilities