Military exposures on Marine student psychological health: The possible moderating role of resilience in a cross-sectional design

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Based on decades of study, researchers have inferred that military service is associated with negative mental health outcomes. Different components of military service, such as deployment, combat, blast, and head injury, have been posited as possible causes. There is additional literature in the sports realm regarding the effect of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on mental health. Some literature to date supports these suppositions, whereas others disagree. The present study is a secondary analysis of data to add to the understanding of these complex relationships. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 452 young Marine Corps officers (81.46% [n=334] male; 25.69±4.67 years old) enrolled at The Basic School or Marine Corps University completed an online survey of valid and reliable psychometrics and demographic information. General and generalized linear models, based on variable distribution, were built to test the effects of mTBI history, blast, deployment, and combat exposures on positive (social wellbeing) and negative (moral injury, depression, post-traumatic stress) mental health symptom variance. RESULTS: Combat had the most consistent effects on negative mental health: moral injury (Wald χ2(1)=7.25), depression (Wald χ2(1)=5.90), and post-traumatic stress (Wald χ2(1)=17.58), all P-values<.05. Resilience tended to have a positive relationship with social wellbeing and negative relationship with moral injury, depression, and post-traumatic stress across models, including models that included various military stressors. Limited statistical evidence was found supporting its buffering effect against said stressors. CONCLUSION: Findings from this young and healthy Marine Corps officer sample concur that the established findings that combat exposure is associated with poorer mental health, and resilience is associated with better mental health. Further research differentiating when, how, and for whom routine military exposures result in negative mental health consequences can directly inform practitioners treating such symptoms and policy around duty cycles and recovery.