Psychological Distress in One of the Branches of the Iranian Military: The Role of Virtues and Character Strengths

Aims Military personnel has high-risk occupations. Virtues and strengths as the values that govern the actions and behavior are suitable predictors for these jobs. We intend to examine the role of virtues and character strengths on psychological distress in military personnel comprehensively. Instrument & Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on military men in Tehran from June 3, 2020, to October 31, 2020. The military personnel of Tehran were selected by available sampling. 410 Iranian military personnel completed the demographic questionnaire and the Virtues Inventory in Action (VIA-120) and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, T-test, and ANOVA. Findings According to the results, the virtues of Justice and humanity had a higher average than other virtues. Among the character strengths, integrity, kindness, gratitude, persistence, open-mindedness, social intelligence, respectively, were six of the most important strengths with which military personnel described themselves. The virtue of temperance and transcendence were related to work experience. Only wisdom differed significantly at the academic level (p<0.05). No significant differences were found between the virtues in military ranks (p>0.05). All dimensions of virtues and character strengths were significantly associated with psychological distress (p<0.05). Nevertheless, only the dimension of transcendence had the power to predict psychological distress. Conclusion Strengthening the dimension of transcendence can reduce psychological distress in military personnel. Recognizing the most important Virtues and character strengths in Military Personnel and discovering implications additional ways to promote the virtues, military personnel can improve their performance.