Military Families and War in the 21st Century

Daily Life, Communication and Affections of Siblings and Parents of Military Service Members in Mission

“…In the context of the perception of social support, during the mission the main sources of support are the family members (especially the closest ones), friends and co-workers, so it is essential to stimulate the demand for this support (Pincus et al, 2001). This means that in addition to formal institutional support, the semi-formal or informal social support networks are indispensable (Kawano & Atsuko, 2015). It should be noted that only three parents reported support from the military services and only in pre-deployment, although the Portuguese Army offered psychosocial support to immediate family members during the mission.…”

“…This is how our study participants try to convey hope to relatives of other military personnel, consistent with the results found with military wives, who also demonstrated resilience and hope despite all mission demands (Walsh, 2012). Thus, it is essential for the family to have various adaptive resources and coping strategies to deal with new discomfort-inducing situations derived from the mission (Tomforde, 2015).…”

“…In general, each military mission has three phases: the pre-deployment, which begins with the notification until the military departs to the operational theaters (OT); the deployment, period that corresponds to the time that the military is in the OT; and post-deployment, which begins when the service member definitely returns home (Houston, Pfefferbaum, Sherman, Melson, & Brand, 2013). Several studies have revealed that the resources needed for a good family adaptation during the mission in its different phases are the social support of friends, the functional support of family members and the communication between family and the military (Barbudo, Francisco, & Santos, 2014;Bóia et al, 2018;Manigart, Lecoq, & Bue, 2015;Martins, Santos, & Francisco, 2014). However, it is also essential to have individual coping resources and strategies, such as having a positive attitude towards the situation, learning from previous identical experiences, and the control of negative emotions (Bóia et al, 2018).…”

“…The results of the study by Carter et al (2011) go in the same direction, indicating that these sources provide concrete and tangible materials that can be reviewed several times by the military, offering repeated support. Other studies with military spouses revealed feelings of lack of support during missions, specifically, the absence of military services with which they felt they could not count on (Carreiras, 2015;Martins et al, 2014), lack of awareness of their existence (Manigart et al, 2015), or even be considered as secondary resources (Martins et al, 2014). However, and in order for the military to feel good during the mission, military services will have to support their family by enhancing "communication" between the military and his family members (Gottman, Gottman, & Atkins, 2011) and provide necessary support resources (Marek & D'Aniello, 2014).…”

Worried, concerned and untroubled: antecedents and consequences of youth worry

“…However, a recent comparison of Canadian and Dutch military families experiencing transitions found points of convergence and divergence (Andres & Coulthard ). Furthermore, although a recent volume by Moelker, Andres, Bowen and Manigart () includes chapters on military systems worldwide and how families are affected, the literature on direct empirical comparisons is underdeveloped. An area for future research involves how differences across countries and cultures compare with differences within countries and cultures, which could lead to important implications for best practices for supporting military members and their families.…”