The Effect of MILITARY Life Stress and Ego-Resilience on Adjustment of SOLDIERS

The relation among military life stress, ego-resilience, and adjustment in military was explored along with demographic variables. 330 army soldiers from one forward and one rear division participated in the research and 297 valid questionnaires were analyzed. For the demographic variables, the level of education and perceived parents marriage happiness were related to military life stress. It means that those who have higher level of education and regard their parents marriage as unhappy are getting more stress in the military. In a correlation analysis, military life stress had negative correlations with both ego-resilience and adjustment in military, and ego-resilience was positively correlated with adjustment in military. To elaborately investigate the effect of life stress and ego-resilience on adjustment in military, a multiple regression analysis was conducted with ego-resil-ience and four subordinate categories of military life stress(role stress, external stress, occupational stress, and relational stress) as independent variables and adjustment in military as a dependent variable. As a result, ego-resilience and two subcategories of military life stress(relational stress and role stress) had significant influence on adjustment in military, where ego-resilience had a relatively bigger effect. It means that a higher level of military life stress is related to a lower level of adjustment in military, and conversely a higher level of ego-resili-ence is coupled with a higher level of adjustment in military. The implication of the study is that stress and adverse experience in military should be identified and managed flexibly to help soldiers adjust well in military. Especially, ego-resilience turned out to be one of the key factors which reduce military life stress and enhance adjustment in military. Although ego-resilience is mostly formed in the process of personal experience and development, it is recommended to stimulate ego-resilience in the military by self-enhancing activities or professional counseling. For those who has low level of ego-resilience, appropriate intervention by their colleagues and commanders is needed to help them successfully adjust and relieve stress. The specific plans for practice in the military, limita-tions of the study, and suggestions for follow-up studies will be presented in the discussion.