Family Resilience and the Fortunes of War

Abstract

Military families have been a subject of concern due to increasing divorce rates and child maltreatment that have been directly linked to the number and length of combat deployments. In contrast many military families show positive resilience in the wake of multiple deployments. This article looks at several special situations where military families are faced with serious challenges after deployment: soldiers returning with post-traumatic stress disorder, soldiers receiving serious injuries, and those killed in action. McCubbin's Family Resilience Model is applied as a theoretical tool for understanding not only the stressors military families face, but other factors that buffer stress and assist in problem solving and coping.

Associations of military divorce with mental, behavioral, and physical health outcomes

“…Data on the impact of divorce in a military setting are especially important given the increasing rates of marital distress associated with the recent conflicts [10, 12, 14]. After controlling for baseline sociodemographics and health status, this study showed significant associations between divorce and new-onset PTSD, depression, smoking initiation and recidivism, alcohol-related problems, binge drinking, and moderate weight gain.…”

“…Recent studies have demonstrated that infidelity and consideration of separation/divorce among military couples have increased during the recent conflicts [14, 15]. Further, service members returning from the war with PTSD or serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, can strain the marital bond [12]. Overall, these data suggest the importance of exploring the potential effects of divorce on health and military outcomes among service members during an era of persistent conflicts, because these outcomes not only affect quality of life, but also military force readiness [16].…”

Postdeployment Reintegration Experiences of Female Soldiers From National Guard and Reserve Units in the United States

“…Many families do adjust-often with a reconfiguration of family responsibilities and duties, development of new routines, and a greater sense of self-confidence on the part of the at-home spouse when challenges are successfully met (Chapin, 2011). For other families, mental health of children or spouses may suffer during and after deployment.…”

Boundary Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Military Family Reintegration

“…Surprisingly, using data from the personnel records of all U.S. service members in the last decade, Karney and Crown (2007) found that marital stability actually increased with greater overall time away, and was associated with a reduction of risk in marital dissolution. However, they did not include in their analysis couples that were married prior to 2001, suggesting that couples who married after 2001 may have been more prepared for multiple deployments than others, thus the higher rates of divorce reported elsewhere among military families (e.g., Chapin, 2011). While there obviously may be some variation in how families respond to greater cumulative lengths of deployment, in the present study, it was conceptualized as a contextual feature that would have an additive effect on the overall stress experienced by a family, likely impairing functioning.…”