Value Stability and Change in an ISAF Contingent

Studying an International Security Assistance Force contingent on tour in Afghanistan, the aim of the present study was to test assertions of the relative stability of personal values in a challenging environment. Three hundred twenty Swedish soldiers answered questionnaires on their values before and after a 6-month tour of Afghanistan. Value change and stability were studied via mean-level change, rank-order stability, and individual-level change methods. Regression analysis was used to study the impact of combat exposure and personality traits on change. The analysis concluded that even when experiencing such a different social context as a military mission to Afghanistan, the soldiers' values remained stable. Some minor changes occurred, in a pattern similar to a regression toward the mean. It was also shown that combat exposure--to a minor extent--predicted changes in values, whereas Big Five scores yielded stronger effects. The present findings suggest that the assertion of the stability of values is a well-founded proposition, even after radical changes in environment. However, the findings on the effects of combat exposure point to the possibility of severe life events having the power to exert change in values. Personality traits were, however, more important factors in the present context.