Smaliukienė Rasa, Bekesiene Svajone, Kanapeckaitė Rosita, Navickienė Olga, Meidutė-Kavaliauskienė Ieva, Vaičaitienė Ramutė
General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 9;14:1082685. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1082685. eCollection 2023.
The meaningful commitment to serve one's country and the desire to defend others make military service unique compared to other human activities. This is especially true for the army reservists who are typically working in the civilian labor market and serving military for the short-term military training or military missions only. As scholars provide limited insights into the effects and influences of prosocial motivation on meaning in military service, this study contributes to the understanding of direct, mediated, and moderated processes which link prosocial motivation to meaning in military service among reservists. Specifically, the objective of this study was to examine both direct and indirect pathways interconnecting prosocial motivation and meaning in military service. The former is analyzed as a direct effect, while the latter includes the effects of role fit within the military environment, the soldiers' self-efficacy, as well as the socio-moral climate of military organization-that is, a variable making military service an exceptional activity.
This study followed a quantitative method analysis by utilizing a hierarchical regression analysis which revealed direct, moderating, and mediating links between the variables. The analysis was based on a sample of 375 soldiers from the Active Reserve of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and the data were collected before and after training exercises in one military unit (repeated measures). The effects on providing meaning to military service were evaluated using the following: Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale, Prosocial Motivation Scale, Motivation at Work Scale, and Socio-Moral Climate Scale. Prosocial motivation assumes meaning in military service among reservists through different, yet related, pathways.
The direct pathway confirmed that reserve soldiers with higher levels of prosocial motivation experience a higher level of meaning in service. The indirect pathway indicated that role fit mediated this relationship. Following the latter, we found that prosocial motivation was a significant predictor of both role fit and meaning in military service. Finally, we confirmed the moderated-mediation effects of self-efficacy and socio-moral climate in our suggested models. The results can be used to improve training programs for reservists.
为国家服务的坚定承诺以及保卫他人的愿望，使得军事服务相较于其他人类活动具有独特性。对于通常在民用劳动力市场工作、仅为短期军事训练或军事任务服役的陆军预备役军人而言，情况尤其如此。由于学者们对亲社会动机对军事服务意义的影响提供的见解有限，本研究有助于理解将亲社会动机与预备役军人军事服务意义联系起来的直接、中介和调节过程。具体而言，本研究的目的是检验亲社会动机与军事服务意义之间相互关联的直接和间接途径。前者被分析为直接效应，而后者包括军事环境中的角色契合度、士兵的自我效能感以及军事组织的社会道德氛围（即一种使军事服务成为特殊活动的变量）的影响。
本研究采用分层回归分析的定量方法进行分析，揭示变量之间的直接、调节和中介联系。分析基于立陶宛武装部队现役预备役的375名士兵样本，数据在一个军事单位的训练演习前后收集（重复测量）。使用以下量表评估对军事服务意义的影响：职业自我效能量表、亲社会动机量表、工作动机量表和社会道德氛围量表。亲社会动机通过不同但相关的途径在预备役军人的军事服务中体现出意义。
直接途径证实，亲社会动机水平较高的预备役士兵在服役中体验到更高水平的意义。间接途径表明角色契合度在这种关系中起中介作用。据此，我们发现亲社会动机是军事服务中角色契合度和意义的重要预测因素。最后，我们在建议的模型中证实了自我效能感和社会道德氛围的调节中介效应。研究结果可用于改进预备役军人的培训计划。
