Psychological richness as a vital psychological resource promoting military personnel’s health: the mediating roles of self-efficacy and meaning in life

Military mental health not only relates to individual quality of life, but also affects the generation of combat effectiveness. Based on the dual-factor model of mental health, this study aims to examine the mechanism by which psychological richness affects mental health in military personnel from two dimensions of positive and negative mental health, and to test the independent mediating and chain mediating effects of self-efficacy and meaning in life.

In March 2025, a cross-sectional study was conducted on active-duty military personnel by convenience sampling from central, eastern, and southern regions of China. A total of 889 questionnaires were recovered, of which 45 invalid questionnaires were excluded because of failed attention checks or excessively short response times; thus, 844 participants were included. Psychological richness, self-efficacy, meaning in life, life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, and depression-anxiety-stress were assessed using Psychologically Rich Life Questionnaire-12(PRLQ-12), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21(DASS-21), respectively. Pearson correlation analysis and PROCESS 4.2(Model 6) were used for chain mediation analysis, and mediator analysis with 5000 bootstrap resamples was employed to examine indirect effects with 95%CI.

① Psychological richness (r=0.584), self-efficacy and meaning in life were significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being (r=0.456 to 0.599, P<0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with depression-anxiety-stress (r=-0.380 to -0.284, P<0.01); ② Psychological richness significantly positively predicted subjective well-being and negatively predicted depression-anxiety-stress (β=0.586, -0.381, P<0.001). After controlling for self-efficacy and meaning in life, the direct effects of psychological richness remained significant (β=0.342, -0.250, P<0.001); ③ Psychological richness affected mental health through 3 indirect paths. Among them, the mediating effect of self-efficacy was 0.1906 (95%CI: 0.1509 to 0.2337) on subjective well-being, and -0.0945 (95%CI: -0.1377 to -0.0521) on depression-anxiety-stress, accounting for 32.54% and 24.79% of the total effect, respectively; the mediating effect of meaning in life was 0.0347 (95%CI: 0.0134 to 0.0611) on subjective well-being, and -0.0240 (95%CI: -0.0462 to -0.0049) on depression-anxiety-stress, accounting for 5.92% and 6.29% of the total effect, respectively; the mediating effect of self-efficacy and meaning in life was 0.0186 (95%CI: 0.0076 to 0.0313) on subjective well-being, and was-0.0128 (95%CI: -0.0254 to -0.0027) on depression-anxiety-stress, accounting for 3.18% and 3.36% of the total effect, respectively.

Psychological richness impacts the mental health of military personnel through self-efficacy and meaning in life. Higher psychological richness is associated with higher subjective well-being and lower depression-anxiety-stress. Psychological richness is a vital psychological resource for military personnel, indicating that interventions aiming at enhancing psychological richness can promote their mental health.