INFLUENCE OF RESILIENCE ON QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL IN NIGERIAN DEFENCE ACADEMY KADUNA

Abstract

Military personnel at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, experiencehigh levels of stress due to rigorous training, combat preparedness, and exposure to potentiallytraumatic events. This study examined the impact of resilience on the quality of life (QOL) amongmilitary personnel at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna. A cross-sectional surveydesign was employed, with data collected from 312 of both commissioned and non-commissionedmilitary personnel using standardised questionnaires, including the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS)developed by Smith et al. (2008) and WHOQOL-BREF developed by WHO (1996). The researchparticipants consisted of 236 Males (75.6%) and 76 Females (24.4%). The age range is between18 and 60 years, with a mean age of 34.28 and a standard deviation of 9.326. The hypothesis wastested using linear and regression analyses, which revealed that resilience significantly predictedthe results, indicating a significant influence on the quality of life (R² = .027, β = .341, p < .05).This explained 2.7% of the variance in quality of life. Additionally, the results indicate asignificantly positive impact of resilience (β = -0.341, t = 2.952, p < .05) on Personnel quality oflife. In other words, this hypothesis was confirmed significant in this study. The study concludedthat resilience has a significant influence on the quality of life of military personnel at the NigerianDefence Academy. It was recommended that the Nigerian Defence Academy should giveresilience-building initiatives top priority, as they have a substantial impact on the quality of lifeof military personnel.