Personality Trait Comparison of Pararescue Personnel and Elite Athletes

INTRODUCTION: Pararescue personnel (PJs) deploy in high-risk environments and perform extraordinary missions under intense conditions, requiring an unusual combination of physical and psychological abilities. The rigorous nature of PJ training and the superior levels of fitness and cognitive functioning to perform challenging physical feats in high-pressure, high-intensity environments have prompted military commanders and embedded health care providers to compare successful performance in the PJ mission with the characteristics required of elite, Olympic-level athletes.METHODS: In the current study, we tested this assumption by comparing the social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of 160 U.S. PJ training candidate graduates and 73 elite, Olympic-level track and field athletes using scores on the NEO Personality Inventory-3.RESULTS: Results from this study suggest that although there are physical and psychological challenges inherent in both the PJ and elite athlete career fields, the emotional, social, and behavioral performance of PJs differs in functional ways from the elite athlete population, with PJs scoring significantly lower in Neuroticism and higher in Extraversion and Conscientiousness.DISCUSSION: The results of this study can be used to improve the delivery of embedded mental health services geared toward improving training and enhancing health, recovery, and performance within operational units.Shadle A, Waite L, Chappelle W.