The mean age of the 215 male military personnel studied was 22.98 years.
Prior significantly predicted later and .
Higher resilience was associated with lower depressive symptoms (β = -0.19, p = 0.028) and higher life satisfaction (β = 0.17, p = 0.038).
Prior was linked to later life satisfaction (β = 0.15, p = 0.040), but not to depression symptoms.
Previous depression symptoms negatively impacted later life satisfaction (β = -0.26, p < 0.001).
Life satisfaction was found to predict subsequent depressive symptoms (β = -0.23, p = 0.002).
Simplified
BACKGROUND: Despite the growing application of the Dual-factor model of mental health (DFM), there is a paucity of research on military personnel. Additionally, existing cross-sectional studies indicate that and are associated with military mental health, but the lack of cross-lagged studies precludes researchers from making causal interpretations. This study aimed to explore the longitudinal relationship between resilience, perceived social support, negative dimension of mental health (depressive symptom), and positive dimension () among military personnel using cross-lagged analysis.
METHODS: A total of 215 military personnel were investigated longitudinally over a 12-week, two-phase period. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Patients' Health Questionnaire Depression Scale-9 Item (PHQ-9), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were employed to measure their resilience, perceived social support, , and life satisfaction, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the correlations between the aforementioned variables, and a paired t-test was employed to ascertain whether the variables changed over time. A cross-lagged panel analysis was employed to explore cross-lagged relationships between these variables in military personnel.
RESULTS: All participants in this study were male. At Time 1, the mean age of all participants was 22.98 years (SD = 2.99), and the mean scores for the CD-RISC, PSSS, PHQ-9, and SWLS were 71.61 (SD = 14.86), 68.60 (SD = 10.22), 1.74 (SD = 2.89), and 28.08 (SD = 5.51), respectively. Cross-lagged analysis showed that prior resilience significantly predicted later depression symptoms (β = -0.19, p = 0.028) and life satisfaction (β = 0.17, p = 0.038). Prior perceived social support significantly predicted later life satisfaction (β = 0.15, p = 0.040) but not depression symptoms (β = -0.04, p = 0.652). Prior depression symptoms significantly predicted later life satisfaction (β = -0.26, p < 0.001), and prior life satisfaction also predicted later depression symptoms (β = -0.23, p = 0.002).
CONCLUSIONS: The negative and positive dimensions of military mental health can interact with each other. Moreover, enhancing resilience and perceived social support may be a novel perspective for improving the mental health of military personnel.
Key numbers
71.61 to 98.96
Increase in
scores at Time 1 and Time 2
28.08 to 28.81
Change
scores at Time 1 and Time 2
13.96%
Prevalence
Detection rate of at Time 1
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Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The present study adhered to the ethical standards outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consents were obtained from all participants for this study. This study has been reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University (No.KY20202063-F-2). Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
