<p> Having a partner as a part of the military induces a level of great stress. There is an absence of literature focusing on the unique circumstances that Reservist and National Guard soldiers and their families face with deployment. This project aimed to explore the unique challenges of part-time military families, looking specifically into how partners of reservist military and regular military soldiers significantly differ in their description of the deployment experience and relational/marital satisfaction, as well as if deployment experience factors or certain demographic characteristics of partners of soldiers predict reported rates of marital satisfaction. A snowballing method to recruit participants was used in which participants accessed an internet-based survey, which consisted of demographics, deployment information, and contact during deployment, and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS). Dyadic adjustment of regular army and reservist partners revealed a minor difference of relational cohesion based on partner's military affiliation. Differences in reported martial satisfaction were also found to be influenced by age and the interaction of age and partner's military affiliation. Partners of regular army soldiers also indicated having a greater number of resources available for support during deployment and utilizing a greater number of methods to maintain contact during deployment. Qualitative analysis of participants' descriptions of challenges and recommendations suggested parenting and childcare to be the most common challenge among regular and reservist components. Partners of regular army soldiers also appeared to frequently specify the need for social supports to be military affiliated. Limitations and contributions of findings are also discussed.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3594132 |
| Date | 11 October 2013 |
| Creators | Moon, Nathan |
| Publisher | Pepperdine University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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