Perceived military organizational support and peacekeeper distress: a longitudinal investigation

Abstract

Many professions vital to the safety of society require workers to face high magnitude and potentially traumatizing events. Because this routine exposure can cause high levels of stress in workers, it is important to investigate factors that contribute to both risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and healthy responses to stress. Although some research has found social support to mitigate the effects of posttraumatic stress symptoms, scant research has investigated organizational support. The aim of the present study is to investigate the temporal relationship between stress symptoms and perceived organizational support in a sample of 1,039 service members deployed to the peacekeeping mission to Kosovo. Participants completed self-report measures of stress symptoms and perceived organizational support at 4 study time points. Bivariate latent difference score structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the temporal relationship among stress and perceived organizational support. In general, across the 4 time points, latent PCL scores evidenced a salient and negative relationship to subsequent POS latent difference scores. However, no significant relationship was found between latent POS variables and subsequent PCL latent difference scores. Findings suggest that prior stress symptoms are influencing service member's perceptions of the supportiveness of their organization such that increased prior stress is associated with worsening perceptions of support. These results illustrate that targeting stress directly may potentiate the positive influence of organizational support and that institutional support programs should be adapted to better account for the negative biases increased distress may encourage.