Psychological effects of long term army naval missions on their families; a qualitative study

Investigating the different psychological aspects and the life quality of navy forces is important for improving their military power and efficiency and therefore improving the military power. The aim of this study was determining the psychological effects of long term naval missions on the family members of the Iranian Navy staff. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 2011, on 20 military families residing in one of the towns of the navy’s 1st area in Bandar-Abbas city and had at least experienced three naval missions. Then the occupational history, life biography, marriage status, the number of children and the history of psychological hurt due to job conditions and war missions were investigated based on free interviews. Questions were designed based on ENRICH Inventory, the Occupational Stress Questionnaire and the job satisfaction questionnaire. The remaining psychological effects of long term missions on families were correlated with age, education level, marriage age and the number of children, job experiences, military responsibility, mission location and duration and the possibility of fighting adversaries. Having a positive view about the necessity of missions was an important factor in tolerating problems. Understanding the psychological effects of naval missions would result in finding appropriate solutions such as teaching life skills with the aim of lowering and preventing these effects.