The Role of Leadership in Building Resilience in Troops

The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program launched by the Army last fall is intended to help Soldiers deal with stress by building their resilience to adversity. The Army has designated Master Resilience Trainers to help Soldiers cope with the stresses of deployment.

Dr. Paul T. Bartone, Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at NDU, and several of his colleagues both inside and outside of the university have devoted much of their research to military psychology, stress, adaptation and resilience, and leadership. In Defense Horizons 69, “To Build Resilience: Leader Influence on Mental Hardiness,” Dr. Bartone, Charles L. Barry, and Robert E. Armstrong enumerated the main stressors of military operations and highlight how unit leader actions and policies can positively affect the mental hardiness of their troops.

In their forthcoming book, The 71F Advantage: Applying Research Psychology to Improve Military Health, Performance, and Policy, Dr. Bartone, Ross H. Pastel, and Mark A. Vaitkus capitalize on the expertise of numerous Army research psychologists to delve more deeply into the psychology of leadership, Soldier psychological health, challenges faced by military families, and other dimensions. Click here to read Dr. Bartone’s chapter, “New Wine in Old Bottles: Leadership and Personality in the Military Organization,” from The 71F Advantage, which will be available from NDU Press in early summer.