FINDING FORMATION: COLLECTIVE RESILIENCE AND IDENTITY NAVIGATION AMONG STUDENT SERVICE MEMBERS AND VETERANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

ABSTRACTStudent Service Members and Veterans (SSM/Vs) represent a growing population in higher education, yet resilience scholarship remains predominantly grounded in individual frameworks that fail to capture how military-socialized populations experience transition. This qualitative study examined how SSM/Vs perceive and describe resilience development through engagement with institutional support structures in higher education. Employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) with a convergent dual-source design, the study integrated semi-structured interviews and reflective journaling with seven first-semester SSM/Vs at a land-grant institution in the Mountain West. Analysis revealed six superordinate themes: resilience as collective rather than individual, identity navigation and reconstruction, institutional support as necessary but complex, meaning-making through struggle, age and generational position as a shaping factor, and self-reliance as both strength and barrier. Participants consistently described resilience as constituted through collective engagement rooted in military socialization. Six identity navigation modes continuous, reconstructed, oscillating, transformed, inverted, and damaged challenged linear transition frameworks. The study's primary theoretical contribution, the Collective Resiliency Model, integrates Richardson (2002), Norris et al. (2008), Ungar (2018), and Vacchi (2013) to reposition the collective as the unit of analysis for resilience among military-socialized populations. Findings carry implications for institutional support design, veteran service delivery, and resilience-oriented pedagogy in higher education. Keywords: student service members and veterans, collective resilience, identity navigation, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, institutional support, Collective Resiliency Model, higher education transition