Study On Social Adjustment State Of Veterans And Its Affected Factors

Veterans, as a special colony of the society, experienced the great changes in the habitation and work content when they retired from army. As the society competition is becoming increasingly hot, a small part of them who have poorer adaptability can't acclimatize themselves to the society quickly and well. What was worse, some may commit a crime and thus do harm to the society. So finding the trait and the law of veterans'social adjustment, and exploring the affected factors of veterans'adaptability could provide theory basis for the mental evaluation of veterans.Objective: To find out the habitation, personality type, mental health state, and social adjustment mode and period of Chinese veterans; To analyze and discuss the main affected factors of veterans'social adjustment; To attempt to use psychological intervention which was based on the conclusions of the study to give soldiers mentality leading and education.Design: The whole study was processed in three periods: (1) To find out the psychological trait of veterans'poor social adaptability by evaluating the psychological factors of the incarcerated veterans. (2) To develop a social adjustment scale for veterans by using telephone interview and the results of the first period of the study. (3) To make out psychological intervention which was based on the conclusions of the study to give soldiers mentality leading and education.Participants: The first period of the study has one experiment group which was composed of 175 male incarcerated veterans,four control groups which respectively were composed of 175 male normal imprisoned culprits, 175 male soldiers in service for 1mth, 175 male soldiers in service for 1yr, and 175 male soldiers in service for 2yrs. 1048 male veterans participated in the second period of the study.Instruments: Chinese version of MAST, EMBU, FPS and 16PF were used to measure the psychological traits of incarcerated veterans, normal imprisoned culprits, and soldiers in service for 1mth, 1yr and 2yrs. The social adjustment and its affected factors questionnaire for veterans were used to evaluate the social adjustment of veterans.Results: (1) Both incarcerated veterans and normal imprisoned culprits scored significantly higher on Father factorâ…¡,â…£,â…¤and Mother factorâ…¢,â…£,â…¤of EMBU than the soldiers in three groups, while no significant differences were found between themselves. (2) Normal imprisoned culprits scored significantly lower on emotional stability of 16PF than the other four groups. (3) Incarcerated veterans had evident lower scores on emotional stability of 16PF than 1mth soldiers and 1yr soldiers, but had no difference with 2yrs soldiers. (4) Mean scores on MAST were found significantly different between prisoners (including incarcerated veterans and normal imprisoned culprits) and soldiers (including 1mth, 1yr and 2yrs soldiers), while no significant difference was found between incarcerated veterans and normal imprisoned culprits. (5) Normal imprisoned culprits scored significantly higher on factors of FPS than soldiers in three groups, but had no difference with incarcerated veterans. (6) Incarcerated veterans had evidently higher scores on factors of FPS than 1mth soldiers and 1yr soldiers, but had no difference with 2yrs soldiers. (7) Veterans from cities adapted the society significantly better than veterans from countries. (8) Veterans'education level had positive correlation with their social adjustment state. (9) Veterans who joined up actively adapted the society significantly better than veterans who joined up passively. (10) The social adjustment state of veterans had positive correlation with their scores on Father factorâ…¡,â…£,â…¤and Mother factorâ…¢,â…£,â…¤of EMBU. (11) The social adjustment state of veterans had positive correlation with their scores on emotional stability of 16PF.Significances: The present study found out the psychological factors of incarcerated veterans, identified the outside and inside factors which might affect veterans'social adjustment state, and classified veterans'social adjustment state. The results can be used in the following three aspects: (1) evaluate trainees'psychological character; (2) the maintenance of soldiers'mental health; (3) the education and management of soldiers before and after retiring from army.