The Nature of Peacekeeping Stressors

This chapter seeks to clarify the nature of peacekeeping stressors and how best to conceptualize them. When military members deploy on a peacekeeping mission, they are confronted with three basic challenges. First, they experience a separation from home or garrison life. Second, they assume the duties of peacekeeping. Third, they must live for a time in the deployed environment. These combinations of stressors can be characterized in several different ways. Generally, the stressors of peacekeeping encompass occupation-related stressors found in other kinds of work environments, including war-zone-related stressors, minor hassles and inconveniences, role strain or stress, and often, a combination of all of these types of stressors. This chapter explores (1) how stress theory informs the structuring of the construct of peacekeeping stressors, (2) how peacekeeping stressors encompass both potentially traumatic and nontraumatic stressors, and (3) how peacekeeping stressors can be best conceptualized for future research.