Stress and Health

Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009)

Published online 16 September 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/smi.1223
Received 24 November 2006; Accepted 13 December 2007

A scale to measure
non-traumatic military
operational stress
Carolyn Deans1,*,† and Don G. Byrne2
1
Defence Force Psychology Organisation, Department of Defence, Canberra, Australia
2
School of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Summary
Military operations involve both traumatic and non-traumatic stressors. The authors developed
a scale to measure non-traumatic operational stressors. In Study 1, a list of stressors identified by
military personnel was compared across responses from two operations in East Timor. Explor-
atory factor analysis yielded three similar factors for each dataset. A confirmatory factor analysis
on the combined data determined item placement. Item analysis then reduced the questionnaire
to 22 items. In Study 2, the questionnaire was administered to personnel from operations in the
Middle East. Correlations with similar scales measured the content validity of the three subscales
(work concerns, operational concerns and separation concerns). The authors conclude the ques-
tionnaire is a robust measure of operational non-traumatic stressors applicable across operations.
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key Words
non-traumatic stress; job demands; measures; military; deployment

Introduction cations on readjustment to home life, mental

Military operational service encompasses a unique
set of duties involving a heightened level of phys-
ical danger, separation from regular social sup-
ports, reduced living standards, and increased
physical, cognitive and emotional exertion. Mili-
tary operations are psychologically demanding,
and the expected psychological stress outcomes
have been demonstrated (Adler, Huffman, Bliese,
& Castro, 2005; Britt & Bliese, 2003; Deans,
2003; Hall, 1996; Kelley, Herzog-Simmer, &
Harris, 1995; Litz, Orsillo, Friedman, Ehlich, &
Batres, 1997b; Perera, Suveendran, & Mariestella,
2004). These outcomes can have long-term impli-
health and longevity of military service (Creamer
& Forbes, 2004; Deans, 2002; Foreman, 2001).
The contribution of exposure to traumatic
stressors on the said outcomes in military opera-
tions has been well established (Hodson, 2002;
Hoge et al, 2004; Litz, King, King, Orsillo, &
Friedman, 1997a). There is less research regard-
ing the impact of non-traumatic stressors on indi-
viduals despite the need to address non-traumatic
stressors being acknowledged (Brooks, Byrne, &
Hodson, 2001), and research with other emer-
gency personnel showing that exposure to non-
traumatic stressors affects responses to a traumatic
incident (e.g. Liberman et al., 2002).

* Correspondence to: MAJ Carolyn Deans, Defence Force Psychology Organisation, Department of Defence,
Canberra, ACT 2600 Australia.
†
E-mail: carolyn.deans@defence.gov.au
This study was completed by the first author as part of her doctoral studies at the Australian National University,
under the supervision of the second author.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

 C. Deans and D. G. Byrne
Recent research on unit climate and culture in
garrison forces has started to focus on the impact
of non-traumatic stressors. The most well-research
unit climate measure, the Unit Morale Profile
(Riley, 2002), developed by the Canadian forces,
measures four dimensions of garrison life via
situational (including role stress) and interper-
sonal (including leadership, communication,
cohesion and support) stressors. Dobreva-
Martinova, Villeneuve, Strickland and Matheson
(2002) used a civilian measure, the Occupational
Environment Scale of the Occupational Stress
Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1987), to apply
social role theory to the garrison environment.
The found responses to role stressors could predict
negative strain outcomes.
Zohar et al. (2004) devised a Military Life Scale,
which measures stressors across the spectrum of
Israeli military duties, garrison and operations.
Their stress subscale had five factors, including
task demands, feeling bored with the posting,
homesickness, friction with authority and negative
life events. US researchers posited three categories
of non-traumatic stressors-work-related, physical
conditions, seperation from home, and another
category of role or 'general' non-traumatic stress-
ors in a scale developed solely for peace keeping
operations. They showed small but significant pre-
dictive ability of some of these measures to predict
depression and PTSD symptoms in peacekeeping
soldiers (Litz, King, & King, 1997; Litz et al,
1997a; Maguen, Litz, Wang, & Cook, 2004). Litz
et al posited three categories of non-traumatic
stressors—work-related, physical conditions, sep-
aration from home, and another category of role
or ‘general’ non-traumatic stressors in a scale
developed solely for peacekeeping operations.
Australia, however, is involved in a wide spec-
trum of operations, some of which cross categories
between peacekeeping and other types of missions.
Australia has a robust scale developed by Hodson
and Swann (2004) to measure traumatic stressors.
An equally valid measure of non-traumatic stress-
ors—valid across multiple operations—would
increase the ability of researchers to focus on the
contribution of this part of the operational experi-
ence, compare with the experience of other militar-
ies, and benefit from worldwide research into
factors that buffer against long-term negative
outcomes, or boost positive outcomes (see Davis,
Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson, 1998).
A comparison with the prominent civilian occu-
pational stress model, the job strain or demand-
control-support model attributed to Karasek
54 Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
(1979) and Johnson and Hall (1988) would also
allow the military to benefit from the civilian field
of literature. This is because this model has been
shown to have predictive validity in relation to a
number of different physical and mental health
outcomes (Dalgard, Bjork, & Tambs, 1995;
Schnall, Belkic, Landsbergis, & Baker, 2000). In
doing so, the face validity of the measure must be
taken into account, as Brooks (2002) warns that
military personnel are sensitive to the relevance of
the scale to the work that they do.
The Australian military currently collects data
on organizational stressors but has only used the
information qualitatively to inform interviews. A
list of stressful experiences that had been raised
by Australian personnel during psychological
screening interviews was first drawn up by psy-
chologists in the early 1990s. Since the mid-1990s,
this list has been provided to members as a form
of ‘prompt’ for them to discuss any stressful expe-
rience (Steele, 2005). The first list contained 45
traumatic and non-traumatic items, and members
were asked to rate the level of stress experienced
from ‘no stress’ to ‘extreme stress’. A content
analysis checked that the items still had relevance
in 2000 (Steele, 2005). This work modified the
list of stressors into 36 items.
Study 1
The purpose of this study was to conduct an
exploratory factor analysis of a group of non-
traumatic stressors raised by Australian military
personnel in their free-response answers on ques-
tionnaires from previous deployments. It was
intended that this group of stressors could then
be manipulated to form a useful scale of non-
traumatic operational stressors.
Method
Participants
Participants were 881 personnel deployed to East
Timor between October 2001 and December
2002, and 695 personnel deployed to East Timor
between May 2002 and November 2003, for
periods of 3–6 months. Data were collected from
combat and supporting elements. Both datasets
had similar splits between regular and reserve
forces (96.5 per cent and 90.2 per cent regular
forces, all reported service), officer and non-
officer ranks (84.4 per cent and 87.7 per cent
Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009)
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 Non-traumatic military operational stress scale
non-officer ranks, 113 did not report rank), and
genders (92.5 per cent and 95.4 per cent male, 38
did not report gender). Missing values were ran-
domly distributed because of skipping of items by
respondents, and also, in the 2002 data, because
of the field condition of the questionnaires upon
return, making some data unreadable. There were
251 and 13 missing cases, respectively, that were
removed from the analysis.
Measures
Participants were administered the current list of
deployment stressors in a group process within a
staging area in the area of operations at the end of
their operational service. Members are obliged to
complete the form for the purpose of the psycho-
logical screening interview; however, they are able
to withdraw consent for their responses to be used
in data collection. This information was provided
in verbal in a brief prior to completion of the
questionnaire, and in writing, on the front cover
of the questionnaire. There were 7.95% of person-
nel who completed the additional blank questions,
and these were examined by the researchers to
check on the completeness of the list. There were
no responses that required the creation of addi-
tional items as responses were simply more specific
examples of items already in the list.
Ethics approval
Both Study 1 and Study 2 received approval from
the Australian Defence Human Research Ethics
Committee and the Australian National Univer-
sity Human Research Ethics Committee.
Analysis
Principal components extraction was used prior
to principle factor extraction to estimate factors,
outliers, multicollinearity and factorability. As a
result of the significant skewness and kurtosis of
item 33 (taking leave outside Australia) and its
lack of relevance (these personnel were not funded
to take leave in other countries), it was removed
from ensuing analysis. To compare results across
time, exploratory analysis was conducted on each
sample, involving the extraction of solutions
containing 2–8 factors, based on the numbers of
factors proposed by other researchers and rele-
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
vant theoretical models to measure their fit with
the data. The obtained solution was then tested
on the combined sample using confirmatory
factor analysis. For the confirmatory analysis,
principle factor extraction with varimax rotation
was used. As the objective of this analysis was not
to test specific hypotheses but to explore and then
establish the internal structure of a set of items
and then examine the extent to which this struc-
ture fits the new sample, exploratory followed by
confirmatory analysis is the method of choice
(Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996).
The consistent number of strong loadings sug-
gests that the construct and its factors could be
measured using fewer questions. Item removal is
commonly conducted based on both psychomet-
ric properties and conceptual reasoning (DeVellis,
1991). In this sample, those items that were
marked for potential removal by the psychomet-
ric examination were reviewed qualitatively. The
psychometric reasoning for removal of items was
based on the recommendations of DeVellis (1991):
factor simplicity, multicollinearity, skewness,
kurtosis, mean and standard deviation (SD), and
reliability. Removal of items based on conceptual
grounds was guided by the recommendations of
Haynes, Richard and Kubany (1995) regarding
content validity in psychological scales. Specifi-
cally, items were assessed for their potential to
over- or under-represent a facet, and specialist
judgement and current Defence research were
also taken into account.
Results
For the first set, mean scores on the stressors
ranged from 1.18 (SD = 0.468) to 2.06 (SD =
1.259). For the second set, mean scores ranged
from 1.04 (SD = 0.263) to 2.25 (SD = 1.252).
Exploratory factor analyses
Principal factors extraction with varimax rota-
tion was performed on all items, excluding the
free-response Questions 37 and 38, and Question
33. Examination of the scree plot and the com-
ponent plot in rotated space showed three clus-
ters: one high eigenvalue factor accounting for
30.1 per cent of the variance and a smaller drop
in eigenvalues after the second and third factors.
Three factors were then extracted from the data
using a varimax rotation, accounting for 42.7 per
Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009) 55
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 C. Deans and D. G. Byrne

cent of the variance. As indicated by the com-
ponent transformation matrix, all factors were
internally consistent; the lowest of the SMCs
(squared multiple correlation) for factors from
variables was 0.64. Table I shows the variance
explained by the factors.
The initial solution for the second dataset indi-
cated eight factors that exceeded an eigenvalue of
1, accounting for 58.9 per cent of the variance.
Again, solutions between two and eight factors
were attempted, with examination of the scree
plot and component plot showing three cluster-
ings including one high eigenvalue factor account-
ing for 29.7 per cent of the variance and a
noticeable drop after the second and third factors.
Three factors were then extracted from the data,
accounting for 40.4 per cent of the variance. The
factors were adequately defined by the variables,
with the lowest of the SMCs for factors from
variables being 0.59. Table II shows the variance
explained by the factors. Comparing datasets, the
questions that loaded strongly (above 0.50) onto
factors did so consistently across analyses, and the
weaker factors cross-loaded at best moderately
onto any factor. Both datasets favoured a three-
factor model with consistent item loadings.
Confirmatory factor analysis
The confirmatory analysis was a principal factors
extraction with varimax rotation performed on
the items from the combined dataset using a
three-factor model. This model accounted for
41.0 per cent of the variance. As indicated by the
component transformation matrix, factors 1 and
3 were internally consistent and well defined by
the variables, but for the more composite factor
2, the SMC was 0.10. Table III shows the vari-
ance explained by the factors. Loadings of the
combined data variables on factors and the rela-
tionship between extracted components (analysed
by summing the ‘scores’ on the factor questions)
are shown in Table IV.

Table I. Variance of extracted and rotated components for an exploratory factor analysis of non-traumatic
stressors—2002 (East Timor) data.
Component Extraction sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings

Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%) Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%)
1 10.55 30.13 30.13 5.66 16.17 16.17
2 2.36 6.74 36.87 4.78 13.65 29.83
3 2.04 5.82 42.69 4.50 12.86 42.69

Table II. Variance of extracted and rotated components for an exploratory factor analysis of non-traumatic
stressors—2003 (East Timor) data.
Component Extraction sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings

Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%) Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%)
1 10.39 29.68 29.68 5.26 15.01 15.01
2 1.93 5.51 35.20 5.02 14.35 29.36
3 1.84 5.25 40.44 3.88 11.08 40.44

Table III. Variance of extracted and rotated components for a confirmatory factor analysis of non-traumatic
stressors—combined 2002 and 2003 (East Timor) data.
Component Extraction sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings

Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%) Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cumulative (%)
1 10.43 29.80 29.80 5.35 15.28 15.28
2 2.06 5.87 35.67 4.54 12.96 28.23
3 1.87 5.36 41.02 4.48 12.79 41.02

56 Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009)
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 Non-traumatic military operational stress scale

Table IV. Factor loadings of items for a confirmatory factor analysis of non-traumatic stressors—combined
2002 and 2003 data.
Item Question Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 No load
28 Leadership 0.80 — — —
30 Double standards 0.78 — — —
27 The Australian military hierarchy 0.77 — — —
29 The deployment’s rules and regulations 0.65 — — —
13 Behaviour of others 0.62 — — —
21 Frustration generally 0.60 — — —
17 Not getting on with others 0.55 — — —
9 Living and working with the same people 0.54 — — —
26 ADF’s lack of concern with deployed troops 0.50 — — —
20 Sorting out disagreements with others 0.50 — 0.48 —
14 Living in a different culture — 0.67 — —
35 Working with military of other cultures — 0.65 — —
19 Language barriers — 0.61 — —
16 Threat of danger — 0.58 — —
12 Health concerns — 0.57 — —
1 Risk of UDs — 0.47 — —
5 Isolation from other deployed members — 0.47 — —
6 Personal privacy — 0.45 — —
3 Living conditions — 0.45 — —
25 Completing deployment’s objectives — 0.43 — —
15 Separation from family and friends — — 0.77 —
31 Contact with family/friends — — 0.70 —
4 Isolation from Australia — — 0.69 —
22 Thinking about returning home — — 0.68 —
7 Sorting out problems at home — — 0.62 —
32 Taking leave back in Australia — — 0.60 —
36 Length of deployment — — 0.54 —
10 Overload of work — — — <40
11 Periods of high activity then low/no activity — — — <40
18 Lack of opposite sex company — — — <40
24 Your role in the country — — — <40
8 Boredom — — — <40
23 The overseas organization (e.g. UN, MFO) — — — <40
2 Risk of vehicle accidents — — — <30
34 Mail service — — — <30
Factor correlations
Factor 1 — — —
Factor 2 0.53 — —
Factor 3 0.58 0.55 —
Note: All factor correlations are statistically significant (p < 0.01).
Alpha coefficients: Full scale = 0.93; factor 1 = 0.88; factor 2 = 0.80; factor 3 = 0.83.
ADF: Australian Defence force; UD: Unauthorised Discharge (of weapon); UN: United Nations; MFO: Multinational force &
observers.

Item removal appeared vague or possibly relating to two factors,

A review of the item content revealed that two
items were related to leave or mail services, which
are no longer relevant to operations. Two items
were not related to the construct of non-traumatic
operational stress because they described inci-
dents of traumatic stressors. A number of items
within the questionnaire did not load highly onto
any of the factors, were poorly endorsed, or
and therefore cross-loaded on factors. Item-total
correlations for the full scale were examined,
and no item-total correlation dropped below 0.2,
indicating that there are no items for which
answers differ strongly to answers on other items
in the questionnaire. However, some items loaded
poorly and had moderate to low item-total cor-
relations. Some of these were kept on the basis
that previous research has shown a link to a strain

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009) 57
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 C. Deans and D. G. Byrne
response. One item (lack of opposite sex com-
pany) was also kept because it increased the
applicability of the scale to single as well as
married members. Three questions were con-
sidered appropriate for removal because of
their low loadings and the fact that they are dupli-
cated in the measure. The issue of multicollinear-
ity and factor simplicity was then examined.
Items, which had high collinearity, loaded strongly
onto factors, and those that appeared similar in
content were examined, and four items were
removed. Removal of the items discussed resulted
in a more compact, 22-item questionnaire.
The changes ensure an even distribution of
items across the three factors. The new question-
naire was named the Non-Traumatic Stressors
Questionnaire (NTSQ).
Study 2
This study was conducted to examine the facto-
rial structure of the new NTSQ on a sample
within a different operational setting to ensure
the three factor model maintained its relevance
and to conduct a content validation of the sub-
scales of the NTSQ.
Construct validation is conducted to check the
extent to which the test measures a theoretical
construct. There is no best approach for deter-
mining construct validity, but a common approach
is to measure convergent validity via correlations
with other tests that measure a similar variable
(Groth-Marnat, 1999). In this study, it was
conducted by choosing already validated scales,
which represent similar concepts to those hypoth-
esized to exist in the NTSQ factors.
For factor 1, a measure of work frustration was
chosen as representative of many of the items. In
the NTSQ, a number of military-specific items
add face validity to the questionnaire. Peters,
O’Connor and Rudolf (1980) derived a short,
three-item, direct rating scale of frustration at
work, which has been used to measure the
effect of stressor–strain interactions within the
work environment (Fortunato, Jex, & Heinish,
1999).
The items in factor 2 of the NTSQ appear to
address concerns over an increase in danger, or
difficult or foreign living conditions. There are
also some specific social factors from which it is
difficult to separate or measure. The Occu-
pational Role Questionnaire, a component of
the Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow &
58 Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spokane, 1987), contains a physical environ-
ment subscale consisting of 10 items about dan-
gerous or uncomfortable working conditions.
Although few psychometrics are provided, the
authors report good internal reliability for each
scale.
The items in factor 3 of the NTSQ addressed
concerns about problems at home and thinking
about being at home. There are no alternative
scales that directly measure the concept of isola-
tion without including cultural integration com-
ponents. As loneliness and homesickness are
considered significant components of this con-
struct, it would be appropriate to measure its
correlation with a scale of loneliness. Stroebe, van
Vliet, Hewstone and Willis (2002) developed the
Utrecht Homesickness Scale for use with college
students. The four-item loneliness subscale is
reported as having a good Cronbach’s alpha (α =
0.85).
Method
Participants
Two hundred ninety-four personnel from the
Navy, Army and Air Force deployed to various
locations in the Middle East between October
2004 and April 2005, for between 3 and 6 months.
Data was collected from combat and supporting
elements. Ninety-six per cent of the sample were
regular forces and 4.0 per cent were reserve forces.
There were 71.9% with non-officer ranks (two
did not report rank), and 90.8 per cent of the
sample were male (all reported gender). The same
method of administration as in the previous study
was involved. As per the previously described
instructions, confidentiality and informed consent
were ensured. Cases with missing values were
distributed randomly and were therefore deleted
from the analysis, leaving responses from 288
personnel.
Measures
The measures described earlier were used, namely
the Measure of Work Frustration (Peters et al.,
1980), the Physical Environment subscale of the
Occupational Role Questionnaire (Osipow &
Spokane, 1987) and the Loneliness subscale of
the Utrecht Homesickness Scale (Stroebe et al.,
2002).
Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009)
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 Non-traumatic military operational stress scale
Analysis
As in the previous study, as the exercise did not
test hypotheses but rather explored the internal
structure of a collection of items, the method of
choice was a confirmatory factor analysis (Tabach-
nick & Fidel, 1996). This was conducted via prin-
ciple factor extraction with varimax rotation
specifying three factors. Although the factors
were continuous variables, all had strong positive
skew, as is expected with mental health data.
Calkins (1974) found that deviations from bivar-
iate normality can have an effect on the Pearson
product-moment correlation coefficient. In order
to overcome this, non-parametric correlations,
specifically Spearman’s rho, were used to investi-
gate the relationship between the factors and the
chosen questionnaires.
Results
Mean scores on the stressors ranged from 1.15
(SD = 0.432) to 1.81 (SD = 0.049). The data were
considered to have similar distributions and prop-
erties to the previous 35-item data. The items
had an alpha reliability coefficient of 0.90. The
Spearman-Brown split-half reliability was 0.81.
No item-total correlations were below 0.2, sug-
gesting good internal consistency of the scale.
Factor analysis
A confirmatory factor analysis specifying a three-
factor model (according to Tabachnick & Fidell,
1996, the method of choice in this situation)
accounted for 47.6 per cent of the variance. The
component transformation matrix showed large
off-factor rotations for all three factors, meaning
that all factors were more easily explained using
the rotation. Table V shows the variance
Table V. Variance of extracted and rotated components for confirmatory factor analysis on NTSQ items—2004
(Middle East) data.
Component Extraction sums of squared loadings
Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cum (%)
1 7.35 33.45 33.45
2 1.80 8.20 41.64
3 1.31 5.94 47.59
NTSQ: Non-Traumatic Stressors Questionnaire.
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
explained. Loadings of the combined data vari-
ables on factors are shown in Table VI.
Items 9 (NTSQ Question 5: living and working
with the same people) and 13 (NTSQ Question
4: behaviour of others) now load more strongly
onto the operational concerns factor. Item 18
(NTSQ Question 22) still cross-loaded, and Item
25 (NTSQ Question 15: completing the deploy-
ment’s objectives) was poorly defined.
Construct validation
The correlations between the questionnaires
chosen, the factors and the full NTSQ are shown
in Table VII. As can be seen, all questionnaires
have significant (p < 0.01) moderate correlations
with their corresponding factors. They also have
significant moderate correlations with the full
version of the NTSQ.
Discussion
The development of an operational non-traumatic
stressors scale, which is applicable across opera-
tions yet retains face validity for military person-
nel, is only the first step. The results of the factor
analysis on this scale have shown a fit for a three-
factor model incorporating workplace, opera-
tional environment and separation stressors,
which have partial, but not total, fit with other
measures representing these areas.
Limitations
The operational environment factor had the least
internal consistency and showed some cross-
loading with other measures. Investigation of the
items showed that this factor is multifaceted,
including items related to cross-cultural social
Rotation sums of squared loadings
Eigenvalue Variance (%) Cum (%)
3.77 17.12 17.12
3.63 16.48 33.60
3.08 13.99 47.59
Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009) 59
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 C. Deans and D. G. Byrne

Table VI. Factor loadings for confirmatory factor analysis on NTSQ items—2004 (Middle East) data.
NTSQ Old no. Question Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3
1 28 Leadership 0.84 0.52 0.52
2 30 Double standards 0.76 — —
3 29 The deployment’s rules and regulations 0.58 — —
4 13 Behaviour of others 0.41 — —
5 9 Living and working with the same people 0.40 — —
6 26 ADF’s lack of concern with deployed troops 0.66 — —
7 8 Boredom 0.50 — —
8 14 Living in a different culture 0.36 0.48 0.54
9 35 Working with military of other cultures — 0.40 —
10 16 Threat of danger — 0.56 —
11 12 Health concerns — 0.47 —
12 5 Isolation from other deployed members — 0.64 —
13 6 Personal privacy — 0.57 —
14 3 Living conditions — 0.69 —
15 25 Completing deployment’s objectives — <0.30 —
16 15 Separation from family and friends — 0.41 0.71
17 4 Isolation from Australia — 0.44 0.70
18 22 Thinking about returning home — — 0.60
19 7 Sorting out problems at home — — 0.63
20 32 Taking leave back in Australia — — 0.62
21 36 Length of deployment — — 0.71
22 18 Lack of opposite sex company — — 0.31
Factor correlations
Factor 1 — — —
Factor 2 0.61 — —
Factor 3 0.53 0.67 —
Note: All factor correlations are statistically significant (p < 0.01).
NTSQ: Non-Traumatic Stressors Questionnaire; ADF: Australian Defence Force.

Table VII. Correlation between NTSQ factors and scales chosen to assess construct validity.
Cronbach’s alpha Spearman’s rho correlations

Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Full scale

Measure of work frustration 0.81 0.46 — — 0.40
Physical Environment Scale of ORQ 0.73 — 0.27 — 0.32
Loneliness subscale of UHS 0.84 — — 0.58 0.53
Note: All correlations are statistically significant (p < 0.01).
NTSQ: Non-Traumatic Stressors Questionnaire; ORQ: Occupational Role Questionnaire; UHS: Utrecht Homesickness Scale.

stressors and personal discomfort such as privacy,
health or danger. Together, these items might be
described as a reduction, in a sense, of safety.
They include difficulties communicating cross-
culturally and maintaining living standards.
Perhaps the research in stress inoculation training
(Saunders, Driskell, Johnston, & Salas, 1996) can
improve individuals’ responses to stressors to
interpret them with less sense of danger.
It should be noted that as this research was
conducted in an applied setting, there were con-
straints on when and where the questionnaire
could be administered. Questionnaires were
administered during the last week of deployment,
when operational duties had been relaxed. The
change in the psychological state of personnel at
different stages of deployment has been estab-
lished (Pincus & Nam, 1999).
Directions for future research
The civilian literature, which focuses on the
concept of demands, control and support, has
relevance to the concepts described in this scale.
Most specifically, the well-developed theory of

60 Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stress and Health 25: 53–62 (2009)
DOI: 10.1002/smi
 Non-traumatic military operational stress scale
social support as a moderator of mental health
responses as hypothesized by Johnson and Hall
(1988) has not previously been acknowledged in
Australian post-deployment health research, and
the scale developed in this paper could provide
the opportunity for that research to be incorpo-
rated without an increase in surveying.
The work of Litz et al (1997a) discusses work-
based factors, physical concerns and separation
from home. The scales developed by Litz et al on
general overseas stressors, including separation,
boredom, living conditions, role ambiguity and
futility, seem to be a response to similar issues
being discussed by US military personnel. While
there are few responses yet as to how to minimize
the impact of these stressors, it appears that many
countries are heading towards this in their
research priorities.
An additional area of complementary research
may need to be a focus on those factors that
contribute to well-being, as research suggests that
deriving benefits from stressful events is related
to better psychological outcomes (Britt, Adler, &
Bartone, 2001; Davis et al., 1998). The interplay
between positive and negative stressors is yet to
be established.
Those stressors that relate to organizational
justice and leadership in the workplace stressors
subscale open the door to research in the field of
unit climate and culture. The NTSQ as developed
here has potential for utilization not only in
mental health research but also as a complemen-
tary measure in climate surveying.
The interpersonal stressors in the workplace
subscale address difficulties with getting along
with people, working with different organiza-
tions, etc. On operations, as the work hours
increase, the team works together for long
stretches of time, and the complexity of the orga-
nization increases. Future research might look at
the level of experience and training in leadership
skills and whether these buffer the effect of those
stressors.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the Defence Force Psychology Organisation,
in particular LtCol Maree Riley and Dr Alan Twomey,
for their assistance throughout this project.
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