The Impact of Internalizing Core Values among Air Force Entry-level Military Officer on Posttraumatic Growth: Moderating Effect of Regulatory Focus

Objectives This study examines the moderating effect of regulatory focus in the relationship between internalization of core values and posttraumatic growth among entry-level Air Force. Methods For this study, data from 151 entry-level officers working at the Gangwon-do Air Force unit were analyzed. SPSS 22.0 was used for analysis, and frequency analysis, reliability verification(Cronbach'α), and descriptive statistical analysis were conducted. Next, Pearson correlation analysis was performed, and Process Macro No 4 and Bootstrapping were used to test the moderating effect. Results First, in the relationship between variables, improvement focus showed a positive correlation with internalization of Air Force core values, posttraumatic growth. And prevention focus showed a negative correlation with all variables. Second, as a result of analyzing the moderating effect of the regulatory focus, it was found that both the improvement focus and the prevention focus moderated the relationship between the internalization of the core values and posttraumatic growth of the entry-level Military officer of the Air Force. However, the prevention focus had a significant moderating effect in all areas, but the improvement focus appeared to play a moderating role in areas above 000. Conclusions The internalization of the core values of the Air Force's entry-level military officer has had a static impact on growth after adversity. In the process, the regulatory focus controlled the effects of these two variables. In other words, the higher the improvement focus, which is the strategy of approaching the goal, the stronger the relationship between the two variables. And the lower the prevention focus, a strategy to avoid unpleasant outcomes, the stronger the relationship between the two variables. These results suggest that even entry-level military officer who have internalized the Air Force's core values have an improvement focus in order to enhance posttraumatic growth.