Across deployment cycles, individuals negotiate family roles to accommodate the absence then re-entry of service members. There is scant empirical evidence about the processes through which roles are reorganized. Guided by the family resilience framework (Walsh, 2016) and the model of military marriage (Karney & Crown, 2007), I hypothesized that communication would be a mechanism through which couples negotiated roles during reintegration. Couple communication was conceptualized as occurring over two distinct but related temporal rhythms: established communication patterns and daily communication strategies. I expected that couples’ Time 1 (T1) established communication patterns (problem solving and withdrawal) would predict role negotiations at Time 3 (T3), and that these associations would be mediated by daily communication strategies at Time 2 (T2). 54 heterosexual National Guard couples were interviewed at three times across eight months after service members’ return from deployment. T1 and T3 were in-person interviews and measured participants’ established patterns of family life, including established communication patterns and ease in role negotiations. T2 was a four-day data “burst” and captured couples’ daily behaviors such as competence with daily communication strategies. Path analyses indicated that T1 problem solving (an established pattern) predicted service members’ more competent T2 daily communication and easier T3 role negotiations. While no indirect associations emerged for either partner, significant others’ T2 more competent daily communication strategies predicted easier T3 role negotiations for both partners. Results suggest that problem solving and competent daily communication strategies contribute to resilient family functioning during reintegration. This study highlights the viability and importance of adopting multiple temporal rhythms to examine processes across couple transitions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the life satisfaction of the wives of naval non-commissioned officers living in an isolated military suburb. As little is known about this phenomenon an exploratory design was used. A sample group of 81 wives was selected by means of stratified random sampling. Measuring instruments used were the Heimler Scale of Social Functioning and a needs assessment. The results of the study indicated that although a small majority of the wives experience their lives as satisfactory they have a great deal of frustration. The two largest areas of low satisfaction was work and finances. It seems that these wives have sufficient support systems. The lack of transport seems to be a problem for these wives. The needs assessment identified a great interest in, and a need for certain courses, hobbies, aerobic classes and a daycare centre. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

SAMMANFATTNING En utlandstjänstgöring är ingen enskild angelägenhet för den försvarsanställde utan påverkar hela familjen. Omstruktureringen från allmän värnplikt inom Försvarsmakten till en yrkesarmé med obligatorisk utlands- tjänstgöring har lett till ökat antal berörda anhöriga. Det är väsentligt att stödet till de anhöriga och speciellt till barnen kommer i fokus. Studien riktade sig till de anhöriga och deras uppfattningar kring utlandstjänsten och anhörigstödet. Deltagarna bestod främst av partners eller föräldrar till försvarsanställda i utlandstjänstgöring. De flesta anhöriga som deltog i studien ansåg att anhörigstödet var tillräckligt bra och att deras uppfattning av utlands-tjänstgöringen i stort överensstämde med deras förväntningar. Utlandstjänstens påverkan på barnen kan kopplas samman med hur föräldrarna klarar av att hantera situationen. Studiens anhöriga ansåg att de flesta av barnen uppvisade få reaktioner som kunde kopplas till utlandstjänsten och att barnen varken reagerat positivt eller negativt på föräldrarnas utlandstjänstgöring. Stödet och förståelsen från skolorna var tillräckligt bra. Bland de anhöriga fanns ett stort behov av information som rörde missionen. Brister i kommunikationen mellan de anhöriga och Försvarsmakten noterades, vilka bland annat rörde var information kring utlandstjänsten fanns att tillgå. De största källorna till oro för de anhöriga var ängslan för att deras försvarsanställda skulle drabbas av fysiska eller psykiska skador eller dödas. Trots oron för risker och faror var övervägande delen av de anhöriga positivt inställda till en framtida utlandstjänstgöring. / ABSTRACT A deployment is not a single concern of the defense employee. It is a concern of the whole family. The restructuring from enlistment within the Armed Forces into an employment with compulsory service abroad has led to increased number of relatives. It is essential that the support to the relatives, and especially children of deployed parents, are put into focus. The study was aimed towards the families and their perceptions of the deployment and the family support. The participants of the survey were mainly partners or parents of defense employees in deployment. Most of the relatives who participated in the study felt that the family support was good enough and that their perception of the service abroad in most cases was consistent with their own expectations. The affects of the deployment among children can be linked to the capacity of the parents in the way they are able to handle the everyday situation at home. According to their relatives most of the children involved in the study showed few negative reactions that could be linked to the deployment. The majority of the children responded neither negatively nor positively on their parents’ deployment and the support and understanding from the schools were good enough according to the parents. There was a great demand of information concerning the deployment among the relatives. The study found a deficiency in communication between the relatives and the Armed Forces regarding where to find the information. The relatives’ biggest fears were that their deployed kin would suffer physical or psychological injuries or be killed. However, despite the worries about the risks and dangers, the majority of the relatives were in favor of a future service abroad.

The purpose of this study was to examine the life satisfaction of the wives of naval non-commissioned officers living in an isolated military suburb. As little is known about this phenomenon an exploratory design was used. A sample group of 81 wives was selected by means of stratified random sampling. Measuring instruments used were the Heimler Scale of Social Functioning and a needs assessment. The results of the study indicated that although a small majority of the wives experience their lives as satisfactory they have a great deal of frustration. The two largest areas of low satisfaction was work and finances. It seems that these wives have sufficient support systems. The lack of transport seems to be a problem for these wives. The needs assessment identified a great interest in, and a need for certain courses, hobbies, aerobic classes and a daycare centre. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

No description available.

Today’s military encompasses a wide variety of families who are affected by deployments in multiple and complex ways. Following deployments, families must reconnect in their relationships and reestablish their way of life. Appropriate and effective communication during this time is critical, yet many military couples struggle with this process. Moreover, student service members/veterans and their families are in a unique position. In addition to coping with changes in their marital relationship, student veterans may feel isolated or unsupported on college campuses, often experiencing anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, or suicidality. The current study seeks to bridge the gap between the military family literature and the student service member/veteran literature by examining how deployment experiences, mental health issues, and communication patterns influence post-deployment relationship adjustment among student veterans. Analyses tested whether communication style and/or current mental health concerns mediate associations between combat experiences and couples’ relationship adjustment, as well as between experiences in the aftermath of battle and relationship adjustment. Results suggest that although posttraumatic stress is significantly related to deployment experiences among student veterans, participants report no significant negative effects of deployment on relationship adjustment. Communication style, however, was significantly associated with relationship adjustment, and a lack of positive communication was found to correlate with PTSD diagnosis. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

This study investigated the subjectively constructed narratives of how veterans’ retrospective experiences of trying to balance career and parental roles. Narrative-oriented inquiry (NOI), which has not been used as a framework in previous research within the area of work-family balance in general and within research involving military families more specifically, was the primary orienting methodology in the current study. Five veterans, all male and who currently reside in the area of Victoria BC, participated in the process of co-constructing their individual 1st-person narratives with the primary researcher. The six stages of Arvay’s (2002) Collaborative Narrative Method were used as the guiding framework for the creation of these narratives. Implications that came out of these narratives in regards to future research and counselling practice are also discussed.