Family Stress and Adjustment During a Peacekeeping Deployment

A US Army peacekeeping task force that was recently deployed from Germany to provide medical support to United Nations forces in the former Yugoslavia exemplifies the new trend toward small, specially configured units involved in U.N. sponsored peacekeeping operations. One consequence of drawing soldiers from units across a wide geographic area is that family members are left similarly scattered. Using both survey and interview methods, we identified variables associated with healthy adjustment of family members and communities. Personal variables associated with adjustment included self-concept, coping skills, and social support while organizational variables included community responsiveness and proactive cooperation. These findings provide directions for those concerned with ensuring healthy adaptation of military families to future peacekeeping deployments.