Communication in Military Families Across the Deployment
                    Cycle

Knobloch, Leanne K.; Wilson, Steven R.

doi:10.4135/9781483375366.n24

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…For the service members, military service is related to a variety of challenges including missing family and important events, the decline of interpersonal connections, frustration with the military or chain of command, financial problems, and destructive personal changes (Newby et al, 2005). Mental health difficulties are also prevalent among service members, with rates of mental health issues consistently on the rise (Knobloch & Wilson, 2015) and influencing relationship quality (Monk & Nelson Goff, 2014). Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for example, are related to lower romantic relationship satisfaction over time (Campbell & Renshaw, 2013).…”

Section: Military Stress For Service Members and Their Romantic Partnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational turbulence and psychological distress in romantic relationships in the military

Monk

Basinger

Abendschein

2019

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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To understand the process of relational turbulence and psychological distress in the context of the military, we used a grounded theory approach to analyze individuals’ experiences in online forums. Analyses revealed a process by which perceived changes in individuals’ romantic partners or their relationships and suspicions of infidelity led to a cycle of turmoil. Participants reported a tension between caring for their partner and upsetting experiences and relational transgressions, which contributed to them feeling caught in the cycle. In addition to feeling conflicted, the cycle of turmoil also encompassed relational turbulence, psychological distress, and fighting between partners. The conceptual model identified in this study has implications for both theory and practice, including underscoring the importance of relational turbulence theory and identifying feeling conflicted as a potentially viable point of intervention.

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Section: Military Stress For Service Members and Their Romantic Partnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational turbulence and psychological distress in romantic relationships in the military

Monk

Basinger

Abendschein

2019

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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“…A related issue is that we were not able to document whether parents were in the midst of their child's deployment, and if so, where in the deployment cycle their child was located. Both theory and research suggest that service members and their families face unique challenges in different stages of the deployment cycle (Pincus et al, 2001;Sahlstein, Maguire, & Timmerman, 2009), including questions about how to stay in touch, maintain their connection, and support each other effectively (Knobloch & Wilson, 2015;Sahlstein Parcell & Maguire, 2014b;Wilson et al, 2015). Many posts were geared toward the early stages of deployment, which makes sense if parents were visiting online forums to gain information about an unfamiliar experience, but we cannot draw definitive conclusions without knowing more about individuals' backgrounds.…”

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A grounded theory of online coping by parents of military service members

Basinger

Knobloch²

2017

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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Although parents of adult service members play a pivotal role in the dynamics of military family life, they tend to be overlooked in research on military families. We seek to shed light on their experiences by investigating online discourse about having a son or daughter serving in the U.S. military. We used grounded theory methods to create a model depicting the process by which parents communicated in the online forums. At the heart of the model was the central theme of parents coping with the stress of military life. Parents were troubled by losing time with their child and feeling alone because of his or her absence, which led them to feel chaotic emotions. They coped with their stress by seeking support, relating to others with similar experiences, and focusing on the positive. We consider both the theoretical implications of these findings for understanding coping and supportive communication and the practical implications for meeting the needs of military parents.

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“…When expectations about communication, including frequency and mode (e.g., phone, email, video), are not met, both service members and family members can experience frustration, leading to further problems within the family unit (Greene et al, 2010). Further, how families communicate during a deployment also may have an impact on how well families reintegrate after deployment; the same communication style may be adaptive during deployment, but maladaptive during reintegration (Bowling and Sherman, 2004;Knobloch and Wilson, 2014). It should be noted that much of the literature on communication during deployment is cross-sectional, and cannot control for family's baseline functioning.…”

Section: Military Family Risk and Resilience Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%