Stress Among Armed Forces

In recent years, the frequent reports of suicide & fragging incidents among armed force personnel have prompted several questions about the negative effects of violence & stressful job conditions on soldiers’ well-being (WB). The prescriptive conception of mental health (MH) is inadequate to understand & explain the complex matrix of interacting variables affecting the MH of the soldiers. The interwoven nature of various social determinants of health which are operational at the workplace, such as the complexity of the hierarchical social categories reflected in caste, class, & power, work jointly to produce vulnerability & stress, thereby affecting the MH & WB of the armed force personnel. With the aim of conceptualizing stress in military settings & its effects on soldiers’ WB, the present work attempts to explore the complex interrelationships between a soldier & her/his work, organizational structures and processes, & the environment within which they operate. At the broadest level, the findings of the study reiterate the fact that MH is a multi-factorial, multi-dimensional state & that material conditions is not the only factor to determine the state of MH & WB of a soldier.