Are All Soldiers Ready for Resilience Training? An Initial Examination of Individual Readiness to Change

Abstract

AbstractEmployees in high-risk occupations like the military are often provided resilience training as a way to improve mental health and performance. This training typically reflects a one-size-fits-all model, even though employees likely differ in their readiness to receive resilience training. Borrowing from the readiness to change literature, the present study examined whether employees could be categorized in terms of their readiness to receive resilience training and whether this categorization was related to perceptions of the utility of resilience training, as well as self-reported resilience and mental health symptoms. Data were collected with an anonymous survey of 1,751 U.S. soldiers in a brigade combat team. Survey items assessed readiness for resilience training, self-reported resilience, mental health symptoms, and perceptions of unit-based resilience training. Following a factor analysis that identified three categories underlying readiness for resilience training (pre-contemplation, contemplation, and action), a finite mixture analysis resulted in the identification of four classes: receptive (71%), resistant (16%), engaged (9%), and disconnected (4%). In a sub-set of the sample (n = 1054) who reported participating in unit-based resilience training, those in the engaged class reported the most positive evaluations of the program. Relative to the other three classes, soldiers in the engaged class also reported the highest level of resilience and fewest mental health symptoms. Thus, those least receptive to resilience training may have been those who needed it most. These results can be used to tailor resilience interventions by matching intervention approach to the individual’s level of readiness to receive the training.