Causes and Consequences of Psychological Distress among Military Personnel

Aims: Military personnel are likely to encounter mental health problems due to high-risk occupations associated with significant levels of psychological distress. The present study aimed to determine the factors that caused psychological distress in Iranian military staff members. Participants Methods: This qualitative research was done in two steps on psychological distress among military personnel. The first stage was a brief review. We studied texts related to psychological distress in the military, then we extracted the factors affecting psychological distress. The second stage was the interview with 15 experts. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants and continued until data saturation was reached. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed through direct content analysis. The results were presented as codes, subcategories, and categories using an inductive approach. Findings: In the first stage, 25 studies were found, and in the second stage, 395 primary codes and two main categories, including demands and resources, were developed based on the opinion of experts. Conclusion: Different factors affect the military members’ psychological distress, which are divided into two categories and six subcategories: Demands (military related demands, occupational-organizational demands, individual-occupational demands, and personal demands) and Resources (personal resources and job resources).