Families Under Stress: An Assessment of Data, Theory, and Research on Marriage and Divorce in the Military

Abstract

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Helping Children and Families Deal With Divorce and Separation

“…Research indicates that the military environment protects families from the stresses that often lead to divorce and that veterans' marriages become less stable once they leave the supportive military setting. 30,31 …”

Long-Term Trajectories and Service Needs for Military Families

“…Although Karney and Crown found military couples were initially no more likely to divorce than they had been prior to the start of OEF (Karney and Crown 2007), later data showed that among sailors and marines, frequency and length of deployments were associated with higher divorce rates (Arenstein 2011).…”

Relationship Difficulties Among U.K. Military Personnel: Impact of Sociodemographic, Military, and Deployment-Related Factors

“…A limitation is that the results are from the military personnel's perspective only. Relying on one member of the partnership may give a biased view becasue couples often perceive their relationship differently (Karney & Crown, 2007). The data are cross-sectional; therefore, causation cannot be inferred.…”

“…This study, like much of the U.S. research, did not, however, investigate factors associated with relationship satisfaction and quality. As Karney and Crown (2007) suggest, to look purely at relationship stability is likely to be misleading and limited when evaluating the relationships of military personnel.…”

“…Deployment per se does not appear to directly impact on relationship stability; however, deployment-related factors such as length of deployment, combat exposure, mental health problems, and the impact on postdeployment reintegration may be related. As well as deployment and related factors, Karney and Crown (2007) raise the importance of considering the ''enduring traits'' (socioeconomic background, childhood adversity, lower educational attainment, and other personal factors) of military personnel when examining the impact of military life on their relationships. Research conducted by Wilson and Stuchbury (2010) investigating romantic relationships in the general population suggests several sociodemographic characteristics associated with an increased risk of relationship dissolution, including younger age, cohabiting but not married, no dependent children, low educational attainment, low socioeconomic status, and experiencing previous marriage dissolution.…”