Resilience and mindfulness in active duty and veteran US military service members

In the present study, we examined self-reported trait resilience and mindfulness in 236 active duty (AD) and veteran U.S. Military service members. Although trait resilience was found to be significantly higher for the AD participants relative to veterans, scores on the mindfulness measures were not significantly different between the groups. For both groups, nonreactivity to inner experience was found to significantly predict scores on the resilience scale. In addition, mindful attention predicted resilience among AD participants, while describing inner experience predicted resilience among veterans. One implication of the findings is that training in mindfulness meditation may enhance personal resilience by boosting an individual's ability to regulate inner emotional experiences during stressful experiences. Providing community mindfulness training may lesson psychological trauma, improve community response to disaster, and hasten the effects of targeted crisis interventions.