Higher Psychological Resilience Is Associated With Successful Completion Of Marine Corps Officer Candidate School

Military training exposes candidates to physically demanding multi-stressor environments to ensure they can execute orders and occupational tasks when under extreme stress. The ability to adapt under stress, identified as psychological resilience (RES), has been linked to success in military training. PURPOSE: To examine if self-reported RES is associated with fitness, injury, and attrition during military training. METHODS: 357 candidates (age: 24.7 ± 3.2 years; BMI: 25.5 ± 2.3 kg/m2; 15.4% women) completed the Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (range: 53-100, M ± SD: 82.4 ± 9.9) prior to the start of U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS). During OCS, candidates completed three physical fitness tests (PFT): Combat Fitness Test (CFT), inventory PFT (iPFT), and final PFT (fPFT). The iPFT and fPFT included maximum pull-up repetitions (PU), 3-mile run time (RT), and an age/sex adjusted total score. The CFT included: 880-yard movement to contact run (MTC), maximum overhead 30-lb ammunition can lift repetitions (AL), a simulated maneuver under fire (MUF) event, and an age/sex adjusted total score. Injury and attrition data were obtained from staff records. Associations between RES and injury and attrition were analyzed using multiple logistic regression analyses controlling for sex and age. Associations between RES and total CFT, iPFT, and fPFT scores were analyzed using simple linear regression analyses, while all other associations were analyzed using multiple linear regression analyses controlling for sex and age. RESULTS. Higher RES was significantly associated with increased likelihood of successful completion of OCS (AOR [CI] = 0.88 [0.79-0.97], p = 0.013). RES was not associated with MTC (adj. β = -0.0003, p = 0.695), AL (adj. β = 0.13, p = 0.077), MUF (adj. β = -0.0009, p = 0.488), iPFT PU (adj. β = 0.002, p = 0.926), iPFT RT (adj. β = 0.005, p = 0.513), fPFT PU (adj. β = 0.009, p = 0.592), or fPFT RT (adj. β = 0.005, p = 0.451). RES was also not associated with total scores of CFT (p = 0.084), iPFT (p = 0.760), fPFT (p = 0.826), changes in PU (p = 0.075) or RT (p = 0.058), or injury (p = 0.586). CONCLUSION: Higher RES was associated with successful completion of OCS. These results suggest that military training may be enhanced by focusing on the improvement of psychological resilience.Supported by ONR Grant N00014-20-C2020.