Background: This narrative review explores the multidimensional impact of Mental Health Literacy (MHL) among military personnel, a population frequently exposed to high-stress environments and associated psychological risks. It aims to synthesize evidence on how MHL influences various individual, organizational, and social outcomes. Methods: A narrative review was conducted by analyzing relevant peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025. Comprehensive searches were performed across major databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, the Scientific Information Database (SID), and MagIran. From an initial pool of 43 records, 8 duplicates were removed, leaving 35 articles for screening. After full-text assessment, 7 studies met the inclusion criteria. The review process followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)reporting guidelines, and the methodological quality of the included studies was appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Results: The results demonstrate that the impact of MHL in military personnel spans five core dimensions: (1) Education and Awareness, (2) Prevention and Treatment, (3) Performance Improvement, (4) Leadership and Social Support, and (5) Societal and Family Impact. Enhanced MHL not only reduces stigma and promotes help-seeking behavior but also improves stress management, early crisis identification, and timely intervention, contributing to overall psychological resilience. Conclusions: Strengthening MHL is essential for improving the quality of life, operational performance, and psychological well-being of military personnel. Commanders and military managers should prioritize developing and implementing targeted educational programs and interventions to foster mental health awareness and resilience.
Objective: To analyze the psychological impact of exposure to conflict zones on active-duty soldiers and to evaluate the role of physical activity as a mitigating factor against stress-related effects. Background: Combat exposure is associated with increased psychological stress, sleep disturbances, and reduced well-being among military personnel. Understanding modifiable protective factors like physical activity is crucial for improving resilience and mental health in operational settings. Method: A total of 261 male Colombian Army personnel participated in the study. Standardized psychological scales (STAI, LES, UCLA Loneliness Scale, AAQ-II, PSS-14) and custom questionnaires assessing sleep, happiness, and physical activity were used. Statistical analyses included t-tests and ANOVAs to examine group differences and correlations. Results: Soldiers exposed to traumatic events or prolonged time in red zones reported significantly lower sleep quality and happiness levels. Those engaging in more than 120 minutes of physical activity per day reported significantly lower perceived stress scores compared to less active peers. Conclusion: Exposure to conflict zones adversely affects psychological well-being, particularly in sleep quality and happiness. However, increased physical activity is associated with lower perceived stress, suggesting its protective role. Application: These findings support the integration of structured physical activity programs as a practical and scalable intervention to promote resilience and reduce stress among active- duty military personnel.
Background and Aim: Military personnel, parallel to appropriate personality traits to the military environment, need virtues and character strengths(CS) that contain values appropriate to the environment. We designed a model that examines the impact of comprehensive virtues and CS in reducing psychological distress. Methods: The present study is an SEM study. The sample community is an available example of 410 persons of military men in Tehran. We used a demographic information questionnaire, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), and Virtues Inventory in Action (VIA-120). Results: findings showed virtues and CS of wisdom, justice, humanity, and transcendence (except for spirituality) are significantly related to psychological distress. With increasing CS, psychological distress in employees decreased, but with increasing virtues, psychological distress in employees increased. The virtues and CS of temperance and courage were not significantly associated with psychological distress. Conclusions: According to the results of this study, military services should pay more attention to the virtues and CS effective in reducing staff distress and strengthening these traits in them.
On February 24, 2022, the Russian-Ukrainian war began, in which hundreds of thousands of military personnel are participating. Almost all military personnel experience combat stress. In our opinion, the most fully reflecting the occurrence of stress in humans, including combat stress in military personnel, is the conservation of resource theory proposed by S. Hobfoll. According to this theory, stress occurs when: central or key resources (health, well-being, family, self-esteem, and a sense of purpose and meaning in life) are threatened with loss, are lost, or cannot be retrieved following significant effort. Combat stress in military personnel can manifest itself in the form of negative manifestations of the psychological, physical, psychophysiological, and behavioral register. The most effective system for the prevention and control of combat stress among military personnel was developed in the US Army. Such a program should contain medical and psychological work activities carried out in three stages: preparatory (before performing combat missions), the stage of direct performance of tasks in the combat zone, and the final stage (after completing tasks upon returning to permanent deployment points).
Since February 24, 2022, military personnel of the Ukrainian Defense Forces have been resisting the military aggression of the Russian Federation. The fighting and the mobilization of men for military service complicated the well-being of Ukrainian families. The purpose of the article is to identify the relationship between the choice of coping strategies and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and maladaptation indicators in married and unmarried mobilized military personnel. Ukrainian Defense Forces military personnel (n=171 males, between 20 and 60 years of age) took part in this study. The “Strategic Approach to Coping Scale”, “Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”, and “Disadaptation Express Questionnaire” were used. Correlation and exploratory factor analysis made it possible to identify the structure of coping strategies in mobilized servicemen with different family statuses and to determine the relationships between coping strategies, PTSD, and maladaptation indicators. The pre-war experience of using coping strategies by married and unmarried mobilized military personnel was not a sufficient barrier to the emergence of PTSD symptoms and maladaptation manifestations. Married and unmarried mobilized servicemen had a deficit structure of coping strategies characteristic of war.
The assessment of suicide risk is a highly debated topic in the literature due to the complex interplay between social, psychological, cultural, and biological factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of self-harm. There is no unanimously accepted predictive model of suicide and no widely recognized evidence-based algorithm for psychiatric and psychological evaluation in clinical and non-clinical populations for early detection of self-harm. Therefore, this narrative review is focused on identifying the validated clinical instruments that may contribute to the construction of a possible screening and monitoring plan for suicide risk in military and civilian populations. Four electronic databases were searched (PubMed, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Clarivate/Web of Science) for relevant reports on psychometric tools for detecting suicide risk published between the inception of each archive and January 2025. Seventeen instruments dedicated to the measurement of suicide and suicide-related aspects were reviewed, as well as three tools for the evaluation of depression severity that include specific items for assessing self-harm. The advantages and vulnerabilities of each instrument were assessed, and the particular features of using these tools in the military population were also explored. In conclusion, although a large number of validated instruments for the assessment of suicide risk exist, it is not possible to recommend the use of a single tool, either for clinical and nonclinical populations or for military and civilian personnel. The endeavor of finding an algorithm for the assessment of suicide risk is still far from reaching its end, as new psychometric instruments and possibly a new paradigm for the phenomenon of self-harm are sorely needed.
