An empirical study of the post-experiential growth of military personnel – combatants

The need to find innovative technologies for psychological recovery and rehabilitation of servicemen – combatants, taking into account the positive personal changes that can develop as a result of their experience of traumatic and non-traumatic (negative stressful) events in a combat situation, led to the choice of the research topic. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between the post-experiential growth of servicemen and women combatants and their life and combat experience. The study was conducted in the period from January 2023 to January 2024 among 375 servicemen and servicewomen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The study used theoretical (analysis, synthesis, systematisation, generalisation of information) and diagnostic (S. Blight and K. Norris Post-Experiential Growth Questionnaire; Combat Exposure Scale; author's questionnaire consisting of 5 questions to determine the presence of traumatic events in life and in the workplace). The empirical study has established that: 1) moderate signs of positive psychological changes were found in groups of military personnel both with and without traumatic experience; 2) no statistically significant differences were found between the level of manifestation of signs of post-experiential growth in groups of military personnel with and without traumatic experience, while the size of the standardised effect was insignificant; 3) signs of post-experiential growth in servicemen and women who participated in combat operations have positive correlations with the rates of injury and the presence of a serious event in their life and combat experience. The results of the study give grounds to identify and build on positive psychological changes in a wider range of servicemen and women and veterans as a personal resource in the course of their psychological recovery and psychological rehabilitation. Positive psychological changes are moderately manifested in groups of military personnel – combatants with different life and combat experience. At the same time, there were no statistically significant differences between the manifestation of post-experiential growth in servicemen and women combatants of these groups. This confirms the idea that post-experiential growth of servicemen and women combatants can occur, unlike post-traumatic growth, as a result of experiencing not only traumatic but also non-traumatic (negative stressful) events.