A Qualitative Analysis of the Mental Health Policies Governing the Civilian & Governmental Aerospace Sectors

Author

Omar E. Saleh, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Honors Thesis - NSU Access Only

Degree Type

Bachelors of Science

Degree Name

Neuroscience

Department

College of Psychology

Honors College

Farquhar Honors College Thesis

Honors College Dean

Dr. Andrea Nevins, Ph.D.

Home College Dean

Dr. Karen Grosby, Ed.D.

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Lucas Hollar, Ph.D.

Abstract

Mental health policy regulates how mental health conditions are treated in specific institutions. Despite the goals of bettering the mental health of pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) mental health policies seem to have done the opposite, with many pilots bravely reporting their stories and challenges with such policies due to their apparent restrictive nature. Flight crew members operating within the United States aerospace population participate in either aviation or space transportation, each having its civilian (i.e., commercial) and governmental sectors for a total of four sectors. Thus, this qualitative study sought to determine how mental health regulations differ between the aviation and spaceflight aerospace sectors and the civilian and governmental sectors within each. Specifically, this qualitative study focused on regulations concerning pilots & astronauts disqualifying behavioral & psychiatric conditions and disqualifying medication & substance use. The qualitative methodology utilized inductive and reflexive thematic analysis to generate comparative themes from the data while borrowing from Strauss and Corbin’s coding process from grounded theory. QualCoder, a qualitative analysis software tool, facilitated the coding process. Three themes emerged: “Self-Management Difficulty,” “Do Not Fly/Do Not Issue Substances,” and “Poor Team Management,” with their respective subthemes interacting within each theme. Overall, this study found that the civilian sectors were congruent with the regulations set forth by the FAA, each theme applied to each sector despite differences in subtheme expression, and the governmental aviation sector was the strictest of the four sectors. It is hoped that this study will assist and encourage future researchers to utilize qualitative methods to determine and act on perceived mental health barriers.

NSUWorks Citation

Omar E. Saleh. 2025. A Qualitative Analysis of the Mental Health Policies Governing the Civilian & Governmental Aerospace Sectors. Capstone. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Psychology. (47)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/honors_theses/47.