American IFOR experience: stressors in the early deployment period

This paper provides a brief preliminary account of sources of stress for American IFOR forces through the early period (first three months) of the operatio

Managing the well-being of military personnel and families

With the expanding participation of the armed forces in international operations, service members and their families are experiencing more military deployments. The frequent and lengthy separations and the risks involved can affect the well-­ being of service members and their families in diverse ways. Maintaining well-­ being is important because it affects readiness and how well military members are able to perform their jobs. Moreover, well-­ being is found to be associated with commitment, morale, retention, and willingness to support military operations. Well-­ being is hard to define. It is often associated with being happy, healthy, or prosperous and is determined by: physical and mental health, income and wealth, and satisfaction with specific domains in life (e.g. job satisfaction, marital satisfac - tion, satisfaction with leisure) (e.g. Booth et al. 2007). Although the large majority of service members and families cope well, a certain amount (3– 25 percent) encounter serious hardships and develop psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, post-­ traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even suicide. It is difficult to provide exact statistical information and sometimes research shows divergent results (e.g. regarding the impact of military operations on health, marital relationships and divorce rates, and suicide rates). Whether it is considered a moral obligation or benefiting the organization, military organizations have increased their efforts to preserve and promote well-­ being amongst their personnel and families, especially in the context of ongoing military operations. Various interventions have been developed aimed at reducing the impact of stressors that military personnel and families face. This chapter aims at describing efforts to preserve and promote well-­ being from a theoretical and practical perspective. First, a theoretical framework is presented in order to better understand the antecedents of well-­ being and the underlying processes. Second, we briefly outline the stressors that service personnel and their families may face in the course of deployments. Subsequently, we describe certain important factors that influence the impact of these stressors on well-­ being. Finally, taking an international perspective, we identify interventions that have proven to be effective in reducing stress and enhancing the well-­ being of service personnel and their families before, during, and after operations

Don’t abandon hope all ye who enter here: the protective role of formal mentoring and learning processes on burnout in correctional officers

BACKGROUND: Within a Job Demands-Resources Model framework, formal mentoring can be conceived as a job resource expressing the organization’s support for new members, which may prevent their being at risk for burnout. OBJECTIVE: This research aims at understanding the protective role of formal mentoring on burnout, through the effect of increasing learning personal resources. Specifically, we hypothesized that formal mentoring enhances newcomers’ learning about job and social domains related to the new work context, thus leading to lower burnout. METHODS: In order to test the hypotheses, a multiple regression analysis using the bootstrapping method was used. RESULTS: Based on a questionnaire administered to 117 correctional officer newcomers who had a formal mentor assigned, our results confirm that formal mentoring exerts a positive influence on newcomers’ adjustment, and that this in turn exerts a protective influence against burnout onset by reducing cynicism and interpersonal stress and also enhancing the sense of personal accomplishment. CONCLUSIONS: Confirming previous literature’s suggestions, supportive mentoring and effective socialization seem to represent job and personal resources that are protective against burnout. This study provides empirical support for this relation in the prison context