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A substantial number of U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Haiti for Operation Uphold Democracy did not believe it was important that the U.S. military be involved in the operation (49%); did not believe that what the U.S. military was doing was important (38%); and did not believe in the overall value of the operation (43%). At the same time, a substantial number of soldiers had positive feelings about what they were doing in Haiti and the mission they were accomplishing. The primary focus of this investigation was to examine factors that were related to the wide variation in soldier reports of support for Operation Uphold Democracy. The results indicated that a combination of soldier characteristics (e.g., race, gender), unit characteristics (e.g., unit type), task characteristics (e.g., task significance), and operational characteristics (e.g., perceptions of public support) accounted for nearly 50% of the variance in soldier reports of support for the overall operation.

"The goal of this volume is to guide the field of military psychology in the development of evidence-based support for service members. Many psychological studies have described the mental health toll of combat as a warning about its cost in terms of human suffering. It is amazing that fewer studies have focused on evidence-based attempts to prevent mental health problems and enhance service member well-being and resilience. This volume is designed to fill this gap. The authors in this volume represent perspectives from clinical and research psychologists, physicians, and sociologists, and although the focus is largely the United States and primarily the army, international perspectives from the United Kingdom and Canada are included as well. The authors are a unique group of specialists who, as clinicians and researchers, are addressing the challenge of sustaining service member mental health. These authors share the goal of developing and implementing evidence-based interventions. Using the perspective of an occupational health model, the chapters in this volume emphasize the way in which the military organization can moderate the impact of combat on service member mental health through individual screening, training, peer support, leadership, and organizational policies. The chapters range from clinically based reflections on how to manage service member mental health during deployment to proposals for reconceptualizing service delivery, the role of peers, and what it means to transition home. This volume emphasizes what is known--and not known--about evidence-based approaches for early interventions and mental health resilience training conducted with service members. Throughout, the authors, all specialists in the field of military mental health, consider both the positive and negative impact that combat can have on service members and their families. The chapters also establish an agenda for research designed to support and promote the well-being of service members and their families"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

This study responds to calls to conceptualize resilience as a dynamic process by examining individual trajectories of emotional exhaustion and affective commitment over time in the face of ongoing role demands. In contrast to research conceptualizing resilience as a dispositional trait, we conceptualize resilience in terms of patterns of between-individual variation in response trajectories (dynamic resilience). In a longitudinal study spanning three months and 12 observational periods, we show that individuals high in emotional stability had more static affective commitment trajectories and that organizational newcomers had less pronounced emotional exhaustion trajectories in response to ongoing demands. Both the patterns shown for those with high emotional stability and newcomers are indicative of greater dynamic resilience. Furthermore, we found that affective commitment trajectories were significant predictors of actual retention through the mediating mechanism of intent to remain. We discuss how our approach offers opportunities to study resilience in dynamic settings.