Facilitating successful reintegration: Attending to the needs of military families.

Abstract

Subsequent to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the experiences of military service members (MSVMs) and veterans have garnered increasing attention. A growing body of work has begun to shed light on their reintegration, a process that can bring with it transitions and challenges for service members and their families. Although many families adapt effectively, some have difficulty navigating this process, which can lead to a host of short- and long-term negative consequences for families. The literature to date is not well-developed regarding strategies for supporting successful reintegration of MSVMs and veterans in the context of military families. Guided by the ecological framework, this article summarizes selected evidence regarding factors that influence reintegration and puts forth recommendations for research and practice to promote the wellness of military families. Informed by findings regarding the diverse challenges faced by these families and grounded in the ecological framework, the authors highlight the need to assess both proximal and distal factors related to families' reintegration experiences and the need to intervene at multiple levels and across multiple contexts. Of primary importance, the authors recommend strategies to enhance the capacity of families' natural settings and describe selected capacity- and resource- enhancement approaches for families, neighborhoods, schools, and communities that facilitate resilience and promote wellness. Other recommendations include focusing on the accessibility, integration, and coordination of services; considering the long-view and developing strategies for longer-term support; developing mechanisms for family support; and evaluating efforts to address needs of families and promote family resilience. (PsycINFO Database Record

Assessing Parenting Stress

“…Military families and families with an incarcerated parent experience myriad challenges and stresses in parenting for both the “at home” and the “away” or distal parent. For example, military parents experience high rates of parental stress as a result of military demands including frequent relocation (Finkel, Kelley, & Ashby, 2003; Gil-Rivas, Kilmer, Larson, & Armonstrong, 2017), long and unpredictable parental duty hours (Willerton, Schwarz, Wadsworth, & Oglesby, 2011), pressure to conform to strict behavioral standards (Burrell, Adams, Durand, & Castro, 2006), parental deployment, and fears related to a deployed parent’s risk of injury or death (Ender, 2006). As a result, military children have been found to show more internalizing (e.g., anxiousness, depression, and withdrawal) and externalizing (e.g., aggression and attentional difficulties) behaviors during parental deployment than their counterparts whose military parent was not deployed (Chartrand, Frank, White, & Shope, 2008).…”

Assessing psychological adjustment and cultural reintegration after military service: development and psychometric evaluation of the post-separation Military-Civilian Adjustment and Reintegration Measure (M-CARM)

“…In veteran health literature, reintegration refers to both the dynamic process of resuming a civilian role after deployment or separation, and the outcome of that process [ 1 – 3 ]. Reintegrating successfully is considered vital for veterans’ mental and physical health and social functioning [ 4 – 6 ].…”

Facilitating reintegration for military service personnel, veterans, and their families: An introduction to the special issue.

“…A next set of articles focuses more explicitly on families. Gil-Rivas, Kilmer, Larson, and Armstrong (2017) synthesize relevant literature and use the ecological framework to summarize selected findings and, with those results as backdrop, articulate a range of actionable recommendations for research (e.g., assessing proximal and distal influences on families’ reintegration, evaluating family focused programs and interventions) and practice (e.g., improving the accessibility, integration, and coordination of services) to facilitate adaptive reintegration experiences for military families and their members. This article serves as a relevant review, analysis, and action-focused piece.…”

“…Although reintegration has been conceptualized as a dynamic and ongoing process that evolves over time, researchers have begun to examine indicators of reintegration outcomes for veterans and their families (e.g., Elnitsky et al, 2017; Freytes et al, 2017; Gil-Rivas et al, 2017). Freytes and colleagues (2017) provide information regarding the long-term functioning and reintegration experiences of veterans with PTSD and their significant others among couples evidencing resilient adaptation; however, additional work is needed to explore the varied trajectories experienced by couples over the course of the reintegration process, as well as key influences on their reintegration outcomes.…”