Deployment stressors, coping strategies and psychological wellbeing of returned peacekeeping forces

Abstract

The study investigated the relationships between deployment stressors, coping strategies and psychological wellbeing, and how coping strategies mediate the relationship between deployment stressors and psychological wellbeing among 120 peacekeeping combatants who had returned from mission in Somalia. Purposive sampling technique was used to enable the researcher collect data from the targeted population. Hypotheses i, ii and iii were tested using Pearson’s correlation coefficient to establish the relationships between the variables and Process Analysis, a multiple regression analysis was used to test the fourth hypothesis to establish if coping strategies mediated the relationship between deployment stressors and psychological wellbeing. The findings showed significant relationships between deployment stressors and coping strategies, deployment stressors and psychological wellbeing but an insignificant relationship between coping strategies and psychological wellbeing. The finding also showed that coping strategies didn’t mediate the relationship between deployment stressors and psychological wellbeing. It was recommended that a strong task force be formed to look into the mental health challenges arising as a result of deployment for peacekeeping operations so to strengthen the man power and performance of the combatants.