The military is a stressful environment, and many service persons experience army stress. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors affecting army stress and stress resiliency.

The present study examines the connections between personal value preferences and army stress, applying the value congruency paradigm.

Male soldiers serving in three combat units in the Israeli Defense Forces participated in the study (n = 257).

The results obtained demonstrated that personal value preferences explained a significant proportion of the variance in army stress beyond the socio-demographic variables. A lower stress level was associated with a higher preference for the values of societal security, conformity, achievement, and universalism, and with a lower preference for the face and personal security values.

The research promotes our understanding of the relationships between general motivational goals expressed in personal value preferences and stress in the military context. In addition, the results obtained indicate the possible relevance of using values for selecting and preparing recruits who will most likely adjust well to the army framework. Finally, some value-oriented interventions that may be used for promoting the soldiers’ psychological adjustment during their army service are suggested.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.