Social Support and Resilience Predicting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Returned Soldiers from Insurgency Areas in Nigeria

Abstract

The psychological field of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been extensively explored; nevertheless none of the studies reviewed reported demographic variables such as age, and returned soldiers from insurgency areas in Nigeria. Thus, the study investigated whether social support and resilience independently and jointly predicted PTSD among returned soldiers from the insurgency areas in Nigeria. The sample was 118 male soldiers with age range of 21 – 52 years, mean age of (35.66 years) and standard deviation of (8.4) returned soldiers from insurgency areas in Nigeria sampled from 103 Battallion and 82 Division Enugu, Enugu State Nigeria. They responded to three questionnaires: PTSD, Social Support Questionnaire and Brief Resilience Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression was used for data analysis which indicated a negative correlation between social support and the PTSD B = -.235, t(118) = -11.412 p<.000. Resilience did not yield a significant prediction of PTSD B = -.070, t(118) = .731, p<.479. Analysis further revealed that social support and resilience jointly predicted PTSD which accounted for 49.5% of variance in PTSD. Among the five demographic variables examined, only age predicted PTSD B = 6.440, t(118) = 2.350, p<.05, which accounted for 9.5% of variance in PTSD. Government dimension of social support also showed a negative prediction of PTSD. It was concluded that social support offered by the government to the returned soldiers helped in alleviating their PTSD experience.