Combatting job stress: Integrating healthy workplace and stress models to support military member well-being.

Introduction: Supporting worker well-being and reducing stress is important in all jobs, and even more so in a military environment. Military members may be subjected to a unique set of stressors and demands (e.g., deployments, combat), as well as demands that are typical across occupations (e.g., work overload), which are associated with significant organizational (e.g., recruitment, retention) and individual (e.g., PTSD, burnout) outcomes. Although less frequently studied, military occupations also are associated with positive work (e.g., skill development) and life (e.g., resilience, sense of purpose) outcomes. Even though identifying mechanisms to support military member health can be daunting (especially given the variety of stress and well-being models), identifying potential points of intervention is vital to understanding worker health. Methods: The authors identified and reviewed seminal stress, well-being, healthy workplace, and intervention models and theories to integrate both unique and common work-related factors that were pertinent to a military population. Results: The authors summarized these key models and theories and developed a military well-being framework including key intervention points to help militaries actively address member well-being from multiple points. Discussion: The goal of the study was to provide an updated, workable framework to address well-being within a military population, while emphasizing key job, interpersonal, and organizational demands/resources. It affords a unique perspective and tool to support future research and practice by linking demands/resources and well-being to primary, secondary, and tertiary workplace interventions.