Relationships between resilience, perceived social support, and mental health in military personnel: a cross-lagged analysis

Abstract

Background Despite the growing application of the Dual-factor model of mental health (DFM), there is a paucity of research on military personnel. Additionally, existing cross-sectional studies indicate that resilience and perceived social support are associated with military mental health, but the lack of cross-lagged studies precludes researchers from making causal interpretations. This study aimed to explore the longitudinal relationship between resilience, perceived social support, negative dimension of mental health (depressive symptom), and positive dimension (life satisfaction) among military personnel using cross-lagged analysis. Methods A total of 215 military personnel were investigated longitudinally over a 12-week, two-phase period. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Patients’ Health Questionnaire Depression Scale-9 Item (PHQ-9), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were employed to measure their resilience, perceived social support, depression symptoms, and life satisfaction, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the correlations between the aforementioned variables, and a paired t-test was employed to ascertain whether the variables changed over time. A cross-lagged panel analysis was employed to explore cross-lagged relationships between these variables in military personnel. Results All participants in this study were male. At Time 1, the mean age of all participants was 22.98 years ( SD = 2.99), and the mean scores for the CD-RISC, PSSS, PHQ-9, and SWLS were 71.61 ( SD = 14.86), 68.60 ( SD = 10.22), 1.74 ( SD = 2.89), and 28.08 ( SD = 5.51), respectively. Cross-lagged analysis showed that prior resilience significantly predicted later depression symptoms ( β = -0.19, p = 0.028) and life satisfaction ( β = 0.17, p = 0.038). Prior perceived social support significantly predicted later life satisfaction ( β = 0.15, p = 0.040) but not depression symptoms ( β = -0.04, p = 0.652). Prior depression symptoms significantly predicted later life satisfaction ( β = -0.26, p < 0.001), and prior life satisfaction also predicted later depression symptoms ( β = -0.23, p = 0.002). Conclusions The negative and positive dimensions of military mental health can interact with each other. Moreover, enhancing resilience and perceived social support may be a novel perspective for improving the mental health of military personnel.