Resilience as a dynamic process among military recruits exposed to basic combat training stressors.

ABSTRACT: New military recruits, typically emerging adults, must rapidly adapt to the stressors of basic combat training (BCT) - a developmentally significant and intentionally stressful experience. Drawing on a developmental psychopathology framework of risk and resilience, we prospectively examined predictors of psychological adaptation in a longitudinal sample of recruits (age mean = 19.0, SD = 3.0) assessed before and after BCT (59.7% of those eligible for follow-up; N = 657). Pre-registered hierarchical linear regressions tested direct and moderating effects of individual difference variables previously linked to risk and resilience. Higher levels of prior adversity, worse self-regulatory difficulties, and (unexpectedly) higher general cognitive ability at baseline were associated

SUBMITTER: McDonald MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12936461 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature