The Relationship Between Military- Civilian Transition, Psycholigal Wellbeing And Social Adjustment Among Retired Military Personnel in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between military-civilian transition, psychological well-being and social adjustment among military personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces. It further examined the effect of gender on the relationship between military-civilian transition and psychological well-being. This was determinant on two facts. ExServicemen and women had to deal not only with life after retirement which every retiree goes through but also life after the military. Secondly transition is not a singular event, but a continuous spatial process that is marked by a disjuncture between the lives lived in the military and civilian spaces. This is often due to their intense socialization which involves being stripped of a civilian identity and adopting a military identity and culture making transitioning back to civilian world challenging. Ahundred and fifty-five (155) Non-commissioned officers both active and retired were purposively sampled from the Greater Accra and Volta regions. Using a quantitative design, all selected participants completed questionnaires on military-civilian transition, psychological well-being and social adjustment. The Multiple Analysis of Variance, Simple Linear Regression and Hierarchical Multiple Regression were conducted on the data. The results indicated that, military-civilian transition significantly predicted psychological well-being and social adjustment. The result further indicated that, gender significantly moderated the relationship between military-civilian transition and psychological well-being. Based on the research findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as limitations and suggestions for future research were also highlighted.