ABSTRACT

Active duty military service members endure a unique constellation of stressors while deployed or at home. Yet, assessment of protective factors against these stressors among active duty service members represents an under studied area. The present study advances the assessment of protective factors through the psychometric evaluation of the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) in a clinical sample of military service members in mental health or substance abuse treatment (n = 200). Cross-sectional data were drawn from military medical records and a supplemental self-report questionnaire. Data extracted included demographic (e.g., sex, age), military characteristics (e.g., rank, years in service), physical health and mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression), and coping self-efficacy. Findings suggest a 3-factor (i.e., problem-focused coping, thought-stopping, and getting social support) CSES structure with acceptable internal consistency. Further, there were small-to-moderate associations with physical and mental health outcomes, providing evidence of construct validity. There were few significant associations with military-related characteristics. Finally, controlling for covariates, thought-stopping beliefs explained unique variance in suicide-related behaviors. Together, findings support the use of the CSES to measure coping-related beliefs in military service members. Recommendations are offered for future research and practice with active duty service members.

 抽象的

现役军人在部署或在家时要承受一系列独特的压力源。然而，对现役军人中这些压力源的保护因素的评估是一个尚待研究的领域。本研究通过对接受心理健康或药物滥用治疗的军人临床样本（ n = 200）的应对自我效能量表（CSES）进行心理测量评估，推进了保护因素的评估。横截面数据取自军事医疗记录和补充自我报告问卷。提取的数据包括人口统计（例如性别、年龄）、军事特征（例如军衔、服役年限）、身体健康和心理健康（例如焦虑、抑郁）以及应对自我效能。研究结果表明，CSES 的三因素结构（即以问题为中心的应对、停止思考和获得社会支持）具有可接受的内部一致性。此外，与身体和心理健康结果存在小到中度的关联，这提供了结构有效性的证据。与军事相关特征几乎没有显着关联。最后，控制协变量后，思维停止信念解释了自杀相关行为的独特差异。总之，研究结果支持使用 CSES 来衡量军人中与应对相关的信念。为现役军人的未来研究和实践提供了建议。