In April 2020, a survey was conducted among Slovenian military families, being one of the first surveys to be carried out in the country after the outbreak of the pandemic. The military was labeled a crucial institution in the efforts to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus and was appointed to various activities, leading to a considerable increase in its workload. The burden of care and unpaid work at that time also intensified, becoming shifted onto the military family, particularly civilian female spouses. The survey’s purpose was to measure how military families evaluated their success in balancing between working from home, household work, childcare, and home schooling during the pandemic lockdown. The risk factors were observed on the micro (i.e., lack of extended family support, institutional childcare, and school lockdown) and macro (i.e., military support, national support measures) social levels. The analysis reveals that when it comes to military families the greatest price has been paid by female civilian spouses. The number of children and their age influence parents’ self-evaluation of their success with work–life balance. The results show that big families and families with primary school children have been struggling the most during the lockdown. Surprisingly, dual-serving families felt the most successful.

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Povzetek Vojaški poklic, ki po definiciji zahteva opravljanje nalog v imenu države, ni primerljiv z veliko drugimi poklici. Položaj vojaškega poklica v družbi je določen tudi z odnosom, ki ga vojska izkazuje vojaškim družinam. Temu ob bok postavimo dejstvo, da sta tako vojska kot tudi družina pohlepni instituciji, ki pričakujeta predanost. Usklajevanje med obema za posameznika pomeni izziv, ki lahko vodi v disfunkcije oziroma zdravstvene težave. Dejavniki tveganja ali zaščite se pojavljajo na različnih socialno-ekoloških ravneh. V članku je prvič predstavljen teoretični model, ki ga je razvila avtorica. V modelu so opredeljeni vojaško specifični dejavniki tveganja IN zaščite in kazalniki zdravja v vojaških družinah. Dejavniki tveganja so med drugim: dolgotrajne odsotnosti, bojne izkušnje, stres idr. Dejavniki zaščite pa so: dobra socialna mreža, podpora razširjene družine, sposobnost uspešnega usklajevanja med delom in družino idr. Ključne besede: vojaška družina, vojska, kazalniki zdravja, dejavniki tveganja in zaščite. Abstract Being a military professional and performing the job in the name of one’s country is hardly comparable to other occupations. The military and the family, as greedy institutions, put high demands on their members so it can be difficult to balance between them, which can lead to dysfunctions – negative health outcomes. Every person needs to address various demands during the course of their lives, and the risk or protective factors occur at various socio-ecological levels. This article explains a theoretical model of military specific risk and protective factors which affect military family health outcomes, developed by the author of this article. As currently identified, the most influential military specific factors are: deployments, service member’s gender, combat experience, social network/extended family support, effective work/family balance, and stress resilience-coping. Key words military family, military, health outcomes, risk and protective factors

This article analyzes the results of a survey among deployed Slovenian service members and their spouses. The purpose of the study was to observe the correlation between the adjustment of children, family dynamics, and military demands during a deployment. Qualitative and quantitative methods were triangulated with an aim to (1) observe how military children adjust and (2) test whether parents’ ability to achieve a work–family balance, the level of parental stress, their attachment style, and the characteristics of the deployment itself are related to the child’s adjustment. Findings indicate that the perception of how well children have adjusted to deployment varies between parents. Family dynamics during and after the deployment are also an important indicator of a child’s adjustment. Finally, while military families receive help from cross-generational family networks, no systematic policy measures exist to support spouses and children during periods of deployment. As a result, this study calls for greater awareness of military demands on family units.

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