Enhancing Resiliency and Optimizing Readiness in Military Personnel

NCT05094115 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: HSC20210486HW81XWH-19-1-0628
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 600
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) are specialized United States Army units formed to train, advise, assist, enable and accompany operations with allied and partner nations. Security Force Assistance Brigades are composed of roughly 800 senior military personnel, primarily commissioned and non-commissioned officers selected from regular Army units across a wide range of military specialties. Because of the high operational tempo (OPTEMPO) of these units, individual resiliency is of utmost importance in maintaining readiness to successfully execute critical, high-stress missions. Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) is an evidence-based intervention with strong potential to enhance resiliency by bolstering psychological flexibility along with other factors which have been demonstrated to optimize individual and group performance. This project will compare an Acceptance and Commitment Training-based resiliency-enhancement training program as compared to training as usual in 600 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigades soldiers stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Assessment measures related to resilience will be administered before and after training as well as before and after deployment. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, and every 4 months thereafter for a total of 16-months.

Conditions

Resilience, Psychological; Stress, Physiological

Keywords

Psychological flexibility

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)

  Change in score on a 10-item questionnaire examining attitudes toward coping with adversity. Items require respondents to indicate their degree of endorsement on 5-point scales ranging from 0 ("not true at all") through 4 ("true nearly all the time"; e.g., "Having to cope with stress makes me stronger"). Score ranges are from 0 to 40, with a lower score indicating less coping ability.

  Baseline to 16 months

Study Arms (2)

Training as usual

NO INTERVENTION

Training as Usual for the 3rd SFAB is the U.S. Army Master Resilience Trainer (MRT). It focuses on teaching resilience skills and is one of the foundational pillars of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program. MRT course is intended to impart training resilience skills, designed to introduce other resilience concepts that soldiers will likely encounter through their careers. Key focus of course are (1) resilience, (2) building mental toughness, (3) identifying character strengths, and (5) strengthening relationships. The 3rd SFAB uses a a team training grounded in strengths-based leadership. The Small Team Development Consultant and Brigade Behavioral Health Provider serves as a consultant to units conducting their own resiliency training as usual. No booster sessions will be offered to Training as Usual.

Training as usual with psychological flexibility training

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Training as usual, with psychological flexibility training delivered during a 2-day workshop. Day 1 provides an overview of the training and describes the posture or stance to prepare for response to challenging situations in a psychologically flexible manner. Day 2 provides common coping strategies.

Behavioral: Psychological Flexibility Training (PFT)

Interventions

Psychological Flexibility Training (PFT) BEHAVIORAL

A 2-day workshop lasting approximately 8 hours per day. Day 1: an overview of the training and to describe the posture or stance that prepares one to respond to challenging situations in a psychologically flexible manner. Day 2: identifies common coping strategies that typically fail or even "backfire" over the long term and to practice skills that promote psychological flexibility. Experiential exercises will be integrated throughout the training. Following the PFT, 4 optional, monthly, one-hour booster sessions to supply refresher information. * An experiential exercise to highlight one or more process/concept that was introduced during the 2-day training. * Questions from the attendees about applying the concepts in their lives. * Comments and questions from the booster session facilitators to encourage application of the concepts.

Training as usual with psychological flexibility training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Adult 18 or older
• Male or female soldiers assigned to the 3rd SFAB

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: lead

Study Sites (1)

Fort Hood

Killeen, Texas, 76544, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Peterson AL, Moore BA, Evans WR, Young-McCaughan S, Blankenship AE, Straud CL, McLean CS, Miller TL, Meyer EC; STRONG STAR Consortium. Enhancing resiliency and optimizing readiness in military personnel through psychological flexibility training: design and methodology of a randomized controlled trial. Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jan 5;14:1299532. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1299532. eCollection 2023.

  PMID: 38250282 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Alan Peterson, PhD

  University of Texas Health San Antonio

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Alan Peterson, PhD

CONTACT

210-562-6700; petersona3@uthscsa.edu

Stacey Young-McCaughan

CONTACT

210-562-6722; youngs1@uthscsa.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: All participants will receive usual training with randomized participants being assigned to psychological flexibility training

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 22, 2021
• First Posted: October 26, 2021
• Study Start: October 4, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Last Updated: November 12, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: At the completion of the study and publication of main outcomes for a minimum of 5 years.
• Access Criteria: Requests for access to the data can be emailed to repository@strongstar.org.

Locations

US (1)