Military Families and the Armed Forces

Moelker, René; Kloet, Irene van der

doi:10.1007/0-387-34576-0_12

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Important intrapersonal coping skills for wives have also been identified, including optimism in general (Padden, 2006) and a positive attitude toward the military specifically (Johnson et al., 2007). Furthermore, using the deployment as a time of personal development (Klein et al., 1988), taking responsibility for personal preparedness (Weins & Boss, 2006), channeling anxiety into other activities (Figley, 1993a), and developing a routine (Moelker & van der Kloet, 2006) are important means of promoting positive coping. Finally, in order to promote positive intrapersonal and interpersonal coping, Weins and Boss have effectively argued that therapists working with military families need to focus on the particular family’s internal and external contexts.…”

Section: The Deployment Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Unsilencing of Military Wives: Wartime Deployment Experiences and Citizen Responsibility

Davis

Ward

Storm

2011

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

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One of therapists' contemporary moral imperatives is to support American service members and their families regardless of personal position on the Global War on Terrorism. One way therapists can respond to this imperative is by seeking to understand Army wives' experiences during their husbands' wartime deployments. Therefore, this study utilized a combination of individual interviews with Army wives and a reflecting team of military wives and civilians to explore military wives' experiences. Two main themes were identified: the wives' experience was an emotional roller coaster and they felt silenced--and could be unsilenced--in their interactions with civilians. Therapists working with Army wives should (a) normalize the roller-coaster experience; (b) encourage wives to recognize negative and positive influencers and explore their idiosyncratic coping skills; (c) support positive civilian-military connections; and (d) as a civilian and as a therapist, seek to be a positive civilian connection by proactively showing support.

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Section: The Deployment Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Unsilencing of Military Wives: Wartime Deployment Experiences and Citizen Responsibility

Davis

Ward

Storm

2011

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

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“…Thus, social relationships or the lack of them have been identified, respectively, as a protective or risk factor for health. The beneficial effects of supportive social relationships in decreasing the impact of stress and increasing adaptation and resilience have been well-documented in literature (Bowen, Martin, Mancini, & Nelson, 2000;Cutrona & Russell, 1987;House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988;Moelker & Van der Kloet, 2003;Palmer, 2008;Patterson, 2003;Unger & Powell, 1980). Furthermore, various studies have demonstrated perceived social isolation (i.e., feeling a lack of meaningful relationships) to be negatively correlated with health or well-being.…”

Section: Social Isolationmentioning

confidence: 90%

A Longitudinal Study of Partners of Deployed Personnel From the Netherlands' Armed Forces

Andres

Moelker

Soeters

2012

Military Psychology

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We examined the longitudinal relationships among work-family conflict, general life stress, social isolation, and psychological distress of partners of deployed military personnel. Regression analyses revealed that psychological distress experienced in early stages of deployment predicted psychological distress at later stages of deployment. After controlling for the effects of earlier psychological distress, partners who reported higher levels of work-family conflict and social isolation reported higher levels of psychological distress, particularly within that stage of the deployment cycle. Finally, we found that reports of life stress influenced psychological distress experiences before deployment but not at any other time in the deployment cycle.We are in the preparation phase and I am continuously aware of the upcoming deployment . . . [it] is constantly present . . . I have always been independent [and] don't ask for help . . . I don't want to ask for help during the deployment [and] would

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“…Considerable research has been conducted on U.S. military families in the past 20 years (see Castro, Adler, and Britt 2006;Martin, Rosen, and Sparacino 2000 for reviews of the most recent research) and, more recently, on European, Korean, and Israeli military families (see Moelker and van der Kloet 2003). Much of the early research focused on a co-residing traditional nuclear family consisting of male soldier, female spouse, and children.…”

Section: Soldiers Military Families and Communicationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Greedy Media: Army Families, Embedded Reporting, and War in Iraq

Ender¹,

Campbell²,

Davis

et al. 2007

Sociological Focus

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Embedded reporting in Operation IraqiFreedom provided real-time coverage of soldiers in war that was viewed and read by publics around the globe. Most constituents, such as the military, media, and the larger U. S. public perceived this coverage as positive; however, live television coverage had an intense and uncalculated impact on some U.S. Army wives and others on a military post at the individual, community, and institutional levels. This study provides a qualitative perspective on U.S. Army wives (N = 23) and their children on a military post whose soldiers deployed in the earliest phase of the war in Iraq in 2003. Live coverage created three types of viewing for Army wives and their childrencompulsive, controlled, and constrained-and hastened use of other types of communication media. Live coverage also contributed to the expansion of the traditional definition of the military family and extended the reach of the Family Readiness Groups andthe role oftlieF^r Detachment Command. Wearguefor an extension ofMady Segal's "greedy institution" application to the military family to include the mass media-specifically live television coverage of war. The so-called "digital age" with its myriad communication technologies provides a new context in which to study families (Wartella and Jennings 2001). The electronicrich environment and mass media have had an impact on military families (Ender 2005a). The new communication media are an important part of their lives, the impact being most acute during military deployments, especially deployments during war (Ender and Segal 1996). Military sociologists must reconsider the traditional GREEDY MEDIA 49 conceptualizations of experiences in military families as communication media of all sorts may challenge and contest fundamental ideas about military families during deployments. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKIn this study we adopt Mady Wechsler Segal's (1986;1989) application of "greedy institutions" to military families as the theoretical framework. Indeed, much of the social science scholarship on military families for the past 20 years has relied on this orientation. Building on the earlier and more general agenda-setting work and family analysis of Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1977), who posited the inextricable link between work-family life, Segal outlined the range of military family life demands collectively unique to military life. Focusing primarily on spouses and soldiers, she linked four crucial levels of analysis: institutional, organizational and structure, interpersonal, and individual. Segal applies Coser's (1974) more general "greedy institutions" conceptualization to the demands of military family life where both the military and the family expect relatively total devotion on the part of the soldier. In the military, two societal institutions intersect-the family and the military. Both make significant demands on the service member. Military members are normatively restricted with significant social controls on their lives especially during wartime deployments. Family devoti...

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Military Families and the Armed Forces

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

The Unsilencing of Military Wives: Wartime Deployment Experiences and Citizen Responsibility

The Unsilencing of Military Wives: Wartime Deployment Experiences and Citizen Responsibility

A Longitudinal Study of Partners of Deployed Personnel From the Netherlands' Armed Forces

Greedy Media: Army Families, Embedded Reporting, and War in Iraq

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