Dynamic resilience and adaptation among Chinese military Veterans: Risk and protective factors during transitional periods

Abstract: AIM: This study aimed to construct a dynamic, stage-based model of resilience development among Chinese military veterans and to analyze the evolving mechanisms of risk and protective factors across phases of post-service reintegration. METHODS: Thirty-seven veterans participated in the study. Using grounded theory, qualitative data from 25 in-depth interviews with Chinese veterans were coded and analyzed via NVivo 12.0 to construct stage-based resilience models. Theoretical saturation was tested with 12 additional cases, ensuring the validity of emergent categories and dynamic patterns of risk and protection. RESULTS: The study revealed a five-phase dynamic mechanism of veterans' resilience, encompassing Identity Separation, Adaptation Conflict, Readaptation and Reshaping, Resilience Leap, and Societal Reintegration. Each phase is marked by distinct risk trajectories, ranging from identity rupture and social detachment to cultural dissonance, role ambiguity, and fluctuations in belonging during reintegration. Protective factors evolve across these phases, shifting from relational anchors such as family and comrades to structural supports provided by institutional guidance and peer mentorship, and ultimately to an internalized sense of agency expressed through goal setting and civic responsibility. This phased structure underscores resilience as a temporally layered, identity-centered, and interaction-driven process rather than a fixed trait. The mechanism highlights transitional challenges, including unstable group belonging, emotional instability, limited access to policy resources, and difficulties in achieving social recognition during reintegration. These findings indicate that resilience development relies on cumulative interactions between risk and protection, identity fluidity, and adaptive growth, while also exposing gaps in sustained resource integration and societal validation that can compromise the stability of long-term reintegration. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that veterans' resilience is a multi-phase, structurally evolving process shaped by shifting psychosocial risks and layered protective forces. By integrating grounded data into a stage-based model, the research provides conceptual clarity and practical guidance for targeted interventions. The findings reveal the necessity of stage-specific policy design, multi-level support integration, and sustained post-transition monitoring. This work contributes to advancing resilience theory in post-service contexts and offers a culturally relevant framework to enhance long-term social reintegration of veterans.