Airman and Family Resilience

Resilience factors are key constructs within Total Force Fitness domains

• The Department of Defense has defined Total Force Fitness as having eight domains: medical, nutritional, environmental, physical, social, spiritual, behavioral, and psychological. These domains incorporate fitness of the body and of the mind.

Many measures have been developed to assess resilience

• Measures of resilience, and related constructs such as hardiness, flourishing, and post-traumatic growth, are often derived from self-report survey data; an appendix to this report contains a table of measures that includes a description of and information about the psychometric properties and sources of each measure listed.

Interventions that are personalized or target specific behaviors are often more effective than broad campaigns

• Other effective interventions focus on creating an environment that offers many fitness opportunities and reduces the temptation to make unhealthy choices.

Existing Air Force data can serve as resilience indicators

• Behavioral incidents (such as driving under the influence, acts of violence, and accidents) may indicate poor self-regulation, negative emotions, lack of coping strategies, and poor safety culture or climate.
• Professional assessments of the population include physical fitness tests, medical and dental examinations, mental health evaluations, and workplace safety inspections.
• Several self-report surveys contain information that provides insights into resilience resources, such as social support and health behaviors, stressors, and coping.
• Air Force administrative data and incident data can identify potential stressors on the force, such as deployments, geographic relocation, and overseas assignments.