Comparison of Resilience, Self-Differentiation, and Health-Promoting Lifestyle in Children of the Chemical Warfare Veterans, Non-Chemical Veterans, Prisoners of War and Normal Population

 War-related physical and psychological injuries are the factors that affect the quality of life of disabled veterans and their children. The aim of the present research was to compare the resilience, self-differentiation, and health-promoting lifestyle in children of chemical warfare veterans, non-chemical warfare veterans, prisoners of war, and normal population.

 This descriptive causal-comparative study was carried out on 259 children of the chemical warfare veterans, non-chemical warfare veterans, prisoners of war and normal population in Sardasht County in 2017-2018. The subjects were selected using purposive sampling method. Data collection tools consisted of the Conver and Davidson’s resiliency questionnaire, self-differentiation questionnaire of Friedland and Skowron, and health improvement lifestyle questionnaire of Volker et al. Data were analyzed through SPSS 23 software using the one-way analysis of variance, Tukey post hoc and multivariate analysis of variance test.

 The mean scores of resiliency, self-differentiation and health-promoting lifestyle were significantly different among the four groups and this difference was observed between the children of normal population with the children of the chemical warfare veterans, non-chemical warfare veterans and prisoners of war (p<0.05) and there was no significant difference between the other groups (p>0.05).

 The rate of resilience, self-differentiation, and health-promoting lifestyle in the children of normal population is higher than the other groups.