Are Peacekeeping Missions Inevitably Stressful?

Abstract

The degree to which peacekeeping missions impact perceived stress, cognitive performance and cortisol levels: a longitudinal study.Military deployment is often associated with stress. Learning more about deployment stress is relevant for developing both preventive and reactive strategies for managing stress. This study addresses stress before, during and after a peacekeeping mission. Data were collected on perceived stress and the stress biomarker cortisol. A total of 41 soldiers were assessed at three points (prior to deployment, during deployment and at homecoming). Soldiers' perceived stress, cognitive performance and biomarkers were measured. Contrary to our hypothesis that stress accumulates during deployment, leading to increased perceived stress and levels of cortisol (as measured in the morning by the cortisol awakening response, or CAR), and to decreased results on cognitive tests, the results show that the levels of perceived stress were lower during deployment than before and after deployment, as measured by the soldiers' pre-and post-deployment scores. The soldiers also had a reduced CAR response at homecoming compared to their pre-deployment levels. The results indicate that peacekeeping missions may contain stress-mitigating factors that have previously been underestimated. Further research addressing stress-mitigating factors might allow a deeper understanding of the deployment environment and, subsequently, new methods of promoting soldiers' well-being and maintaining high combat fitness.

Measuring the Impact of Operational Stress: The Relevance of Assessing Stress-related Health Across the Deployment Cycle

“…Pre-deployment scoring showed good readiness to deploy and indicated no areas of worry. During deployment, the results indicated a small but positive effect that is consistent with previous studies of Swedish peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan, 21 that is, a slightly lower score on PSS14 during deployment compared to pre- and post-deployment scores. Neither KSQ nor SMBM burnout measure results indicated any alarming scores during any of the timepoints.…”

Editors’ Note: Stocktaking of an Emergent Field After Five Years of the Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

“…But we also insist that any such link or relevance may be understood broadly. Examples from the journal's archives cover a wide range of themes, including digital education (Kosonen, Vekkaila, & Pullinen, 2023), life-writing (Hagen, 2019), veterans transitioning to civilian life (Pedersen & Wieser, 2021), peacekeeping (Wisén et al, 2021), cyber militias (Svantesson, 2023), and search and rescue (Dahlberg et al, 2020).…”