THREAT TO PERSONAL SECURITY – CONSEQUENCES OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS AMONG POLISH SOLDIERS PARTICIPATING IN MISSIONS ABROAD

Abstract

Soldiers participating in various types of missions abroad experience stress almost every day.This indispensable element of military service is caused primarily by numerous military threats.Functioning under chronic stress for a long period of time leads to consequences on many levels.Most scientists dealing with this topic unanimously emphasize that living under chronic stresscauses the body to react both mentally and physically. Moreover, the paper covers the emotional,cognitive, biological and behavioural spheres. The purpose of the research was to determine theextent to which soldiers deployed on missions experience negative and positive consequences oftraumatic experiences, what relationships exist between negative and positive consequences oftraumatic experience, and whether they are related to demographic variables.Results. The results of the authors’ research indicated that the surveyed soldiers deployed onoverseas missions, exposed to a traumatic event connected with the performance of their serviceduties, are affected by both negative and positive consequences of the events experienced.Conclusions. Therefore, the results obtained confirmed the possibility of the co-occurrence ofnegative and positive effects of the experienced trauma.