Personality Factors as Determinants of Adjustment Among Military Children

Abstract

Families of service personnel are unique. Frequent moves, the potential of being deployed into hostile environments, long periods of family separation are some of the life stressors faced by them. The majority of researches in the area of military have focused on the family experience. The Personality and Adjustment patterns of children of service personnel remain unexplored specifically in Indian context. The objective of the present research is to compare the Personality and Adjustment patterns of children of non- Air Force Personnel and Air Force Personnel. In order to address the delineated research questions, a total sample of 82 adolescents from different Air Force schools in Delhi were chosen using random sampling. The sample comprised of 41 children of Non- Air Force Personnel and 41 children of Air Force Personnel. The age range was 15-17 years. The data was gathered using standardized questionnaires: HEXACO-PI 60 Items, Self Report form and Bell Adjustment Inventory. The data was analyzed using Pearson coefficient for finding the correlations between Personality factors and Adjustment and Multiple Regression Analysis was used to find which Personality factors are predicting emotional and social adjustment. It was found that there was a significant difference among children of Air Force Personnel and non-Air Force Personnel only with respect to Extraversion and Openness to Experience dimensions of Personality and Emotional dimension of Adjustment. Results from regression analysis revealed that Emotionality factor of Personality is a significant predictor of Emotional Adjustment (p<.001) which is explained by 12.5% variance. The findings of the research have further been discussed and related to the previous researches in this area.