Specificity of behavioral copying in long-sealing seamen with different levels of mental health and stress load

Abstract

The features of coping as a basic construct of the behavioral repertoire of long-distance sailors, taking into account the state of their mental health and the level of psychosocial stress were investigated. During 2016-2019, 110 officers of the command staff of the Maritime Merchant Navy, 90 sailors of the Maritime Merchant Fleet, 70 representatives of the command unit of the Maritime Passenger Fleet and 30 privates of the Maritime Passenger Fleet were surveyed. All persons were examined by men, citizens of Ukraine. The study included the use of clinical-psychopathological and psychodiagnostic methods. The general trend in the distribution of coping tensions was its association with the level of aircraft inlierent in the surveyed, namely, increasing the quantitative indicators of the use of unconstructive strategies (confrontational coping, escape-avoidance, distancing) and reducing the use of constructive coping (positive reassessment, self-support, social support), taking responsibility, planning to solve the problem) with the increasing severity of the stress experienced and the deterioration of mental health, up to the development of clinically defined disorders of adaptation. A common difference identified in the study was the low intensity of the use of seafarers’ responsibilities, regardless of the type of navy and the level of the aircraft, and, conversely, its high performance, along with a strategy of self-control using command and trade, and passenger fleets, with a decrease in their tension as the stress load experienced by the captains.

The identified patterns should be taken into account in the development of specific measures of psychotherapy and psychoprophylaxis for this contingent.

Keywords: long-distance sailors, psychosocial stress, coping behavior.