“Sometimes, During Deployment, It Seems Like We Won’t Make It”: U.S. Military Deployment Transition Issues as a Precursor to Couples’ Reintegration Issues

Abstract

The bulk of the literature on the Relational Turbulence Model relating to U.S. military couples clusters around examining relational turbulence and communication issues when a service member returns from a deployment and reintegrates back into the home. Lacking in comparison is a deeper examination of turbulence and all of its related variables when the service member leaves the home to go on the deployment. The current study examines these components as they relate to overseas military deployment. A thematic analysis of participants’ perceptions uncovered major themes of Relational Uncertainty, Partner Interferences, and Relational Turbulence along with several subthemes and additional subtheme-types. If we consider the well-established relational communication issues couples face during reintegrating, these findings suggest that those issues may actually stem from the perceptions of relational turbulence in the initial parts of the deployment cycle during deployment.