Background: The peculiar characteristics of a military career, such as the specific professional military aims or tasks, working
environment, strict subordination typical to military structures and formal and informal relationships, influence the type of coping s t r a t e g i e s e m p l o y e d b y individuals. The authors present the first study on coping strategies
in a Nigerian military population. The study is aimed at determining the pattern of coping strategies employed by service personnel in the course of their duties and its c o r r e l a t i o n w i t h s o c i o - demographic parameters of this population.
Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study carried out among 193 servicemen. Samples w e r e d r a w n b y s t r a t i f i e d multistage sampling in which respondents were stratified according to gender, military units and rank. Data was collected u s i n g s o c i o - d e m o g r a p h i c
questionnaire and the full COPE scale.
Results: Regarding specific coping strategies; 'turning to religion 1 (mean:- 14.09 ±2.551), was the most commonly used coping strategy, followed by planning (mean:- 12.6±3.059), positive re-interpretation and growth (mean:- 12.27+2.917) and then active coping (mean:- 12.11+2.896). Alcohol/drug use (mean:- 5.65 ±2.566) was the least used coping strategy among respondents. A statistically significant relationship was found between some coping strategies and gender (“Emotion Focussed Coping” greater among females, P= 0.017), educational status (“Denial":- P=0.004, “Mental Disengagement”:- P=0.038, “Behavioural Disengagement”:- P=0.000), and marital status
(“Planning” highest among the divorced /separated group, P=0.019; “Suppression of Competing Activities” highest among single respondents , P=0.033; while “Humour” highest among the widowed, P=0.005), as well as the military ranks (emotion
focused coping was greater among the lower ranks, P=0.042) of the service personnel. There was no statistically significant difference among the various age groups of the respondents with the various coping strategies.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that personnel of the Nigerian Army exhibited significant differences in their coping strategies associated with specific socio-demographic parameters. The authors recommend an intensification of army personnel training on the positive coping skills.
Key words: Keywords: Military, Coping Service, Northern Nigeria.
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