Warfare and Welfare: Military Service, Combat, and Marital Dissolution

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of military service on the duration of a veteran's first marriage, a topic in the literature with both scant and highly contradictory conclusions. Our sample consisted of 3,800 males from the National Survey of Families and Households (1987-1994). Using hazard rate analysis, we estimate the impact of both combat and noncombat assignments on marital duration. Our statistical results imply: (1) self-reported participation in combat increases the hazard rate for marital dissolution by over 60 percent; (2) time of marriage (whether before, during, or after the war) does not affect dissolution, except for wartime marriages during WWII, where the effect is strong; and (3) the effects of war differ significantly across the major U.S. wars; surprisingly, the strongest negative impact on duration occurs with the neglected Korean War veterans.

A Qualitative Analysis of Military Couples With High and Low Trauma Symptoms and Relationship Distress Levels

“…Trauma, specifically combat or other military-related traumatic experiences, may be particularly detrimental couple and family functioning (Dekel & Monson, 2010;Dirkzwager et al, 2005;Ruger, Wilson, & Waddoups, 2002). Research by Riggs, Byrne, Weathers, and Litz (1998) indicated that over 70% of the PTSD veterans and their partners reported clinically significant levels of relationship distress, compared to 30% of the non-PTSD couples.…”

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

“…For example, although service in the Vietnam War has not been associated with higher rates of divorce, those who had greater exposure to combat during their service in that war also experienced higher rates of marital problems after their service. Using retrospective life-history data from the National Survey of Families and Households, Ruger, Wilson, and Waddoups (2002) estimated that, controlling for background and period of service, the experience of military combat in any war between 1930 and 1984 increased the risk of subsequent marital dissolution by 62 percent. Thus, whereas any deployment is stressful, it may only be exposure to combat that has the lasting effects on service members that lead to the deterioration of marriages.…”

“…Until models of military marriage are refined enough to take the changing social context of the military into account, assumptions based on prior research should be examined with caution. These issues have rarely been acknowledged in contemporary research on military marriage (see Ruger, Wilson, and Waddoups, 2002, for a rare exception).…”

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

“…Although links between combat and marital outcomes are reported in U.S. research (Ruger, Wilson, & Waddoups, 2002), the retrospective methods and focus on historical wars in these studies makes generalizing to the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan questionable. More recent research shows that combat exposure is unrelated to marital quality (Renshaw, Rodrigues, & Jones, 2008;Riviere, Merrill, Thomas, Wilk, & Bliese, 2012).…”