The concept of coping is considered by the authors to be important to understanding the psychological outcomes of the stresses of military experiences in a developing multi-ethnic, multi-religious society with its problems of internal conflicts, growing infrastructure and developing economy. Coping mechanisms/strategies play a role in psychological maladjustments in relation to occupational tasks particularly in the military. To determine correlations, if any, between coping strategies and psychiatric morbidity and also to compare psychiatric outcomes among troops who use emotion focused coping and those who use problem focused coping. A cross sectional descriptive study carried out among 193 servicemen. Samples were drawn by stratified multistage sampling in which respondents were stratified according to gender, military units and rank. Data was collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire, the full COPE scale, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 12 and interviewed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Nine out of the 15 coping strategy domains had statistically significant correlations with morbidity. Logistic regression result showed that three coping strategies were independently associated with psychiatric morbidity. We recommend a curriculum on coping skills training for the Army. The study found a significant relationship between coping styles and morbidity with emotion focused coping showing a greater positive correlation with morbidity.
 

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