Impact of Stress-Coping Strategies on Personnel’s Mental Health during Naval Dispatch of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Destroyer

Abstract Predicting mental health problems is an important military concern as such problems have a negative impact on continuity of operations, especially at sea. One component of resilience, generally a strong predictor of mental health, is coping strategies which are more specific, measurable and easier to discuss than resilience. To examine whether such strategies would have a positive impact on mental health while at sea, we collected the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) for 134 of 199 crew members dispatched overseas for four months at the beginning (Time 1; T1) and the end of the dispatch (Time 2; T2). Stress-coping strategies were assessed using the Way of Coping Checklist at T1. The relationships between demographic factors, coping strategies, and GHQ-30 scores at T1 survey were examined. Subsequently, using factors associated with the differences in GHQ-30 scores between T1 and T2 (ΔGHQ-30), we created a multivariate model to identify predictor of ΔGHQ-30. In T1 survey, no demographic features but five stress-coping strategies were associated with GHQ-30 scores. In the multivariate model, positive cognitive coping was the only predictor of ΔGHQ-30. Assessing stress-coping strategies could predict individual’s resilience to occupational stress at sea, and teaching positive cognitive coping would improving their resilience.