Comparison of the effectiveness of stress defusing and patience techniques on resilience in navy deployed in an Iranian island in Persian Gulf

Military personnel should have suitable resilience against the increasing psychological pressures on military conditions, especially in the islands. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of stress defusing and patience techniques on resilience in navy deployed in an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted in one of the Persian Gulf islands in 2016. Forty navy in convenience method enrolled and were randomly assigned to either stress defusing (n=20) or patience (n=20). The Connor-Davidson Resiliency Questionnaire was completed at pre-test for all. Subsequently, participants in both groups attended 10 one-hour training sessions each day. Finally, the resiliency questionnaire was completed by them again. Data were analysed using SPSS 19 software.

In the final analysis, 17 navy were in patience group with a mean age of 30.7±3.2 and 19 navy in the Stress defusing group with a mean age of 29.9±2.2 years. Stress defusing technique increased resilience by 18.7% and patience technique increased resilience by 53%. Comparison of the mean scores recorded in the post-test showed that patience significantly improved resiliency (p=0.006), in navy in the island and had a significant difference with stress defusing technique.

Both stress defusing and patience training technique have a positive and significant effect on resiliency promotion, so it is recommended that both intervention techniques, especially patience training, be used to improve resilience in military personnel before, during, and after deployed missions.