Couples' Experiences of Role and Responsibility Changes as a Result of Military Deployment: A Phenomenological Inquiry

Abstract The United States armed forces have been involved with the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 and 2003 respectively. Characteristic of these missions has been rapid and repeated service member deployments. Extended absences for operational duty powerfully impacts service members and families. Multiple deployments have the capacity to change the structure of military families by shifting roles and responsibilities away from deployed service members and to the non-deployed spouses. Upon service members' return, couples may need to negotiate the reassignment of these changing roles and responsibilities; a process further complicated by subsequent return to operational duty. Although researchers commonly assumed role and responsibility changes would be difficult for military couples to manage, no empirical evidence existed to substantiate that assumption. The purpose of this Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was to explore the lived experiences of four military couples from Ft. Sill, Oklahoma Army post as they renegotiated roles and responsibilities changes after two or more deployments. Participant couples were interviewed individually and conjointly in a semi-structured in-depth format. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following an IPA protocol. Twenty-nine themes nested within 6 super-ordinate themes answered the research question: How do military couples who have experienced role and responsibility changes during multiple deployment/reintegration cycles make sense of these changes? The super-ordinate themes identified were, (a) Communication interference/censoring and familial disconnection; (b) Resiliency, trust, and freedom; (c) Military lifestyle as sacrifice; (d) Structural changes to family; (e) Resources, preparation, and teamwork; and (f) Reintegration as a process. Findings from the study confirmed the use of role exit theory to explain some aspects of the deployment/reintegration process, but not in the way speculated by scholarly authors. Participants in the study revealed that role exit theory does not illuminate the non-deployed spouses' experiences because they did not exit roles that had become meaningful or defining. Non-deployed spouses retained primary parent/disciplinarian and money manager roles while easily relinquishing other roles. Role exit theory explicated the experiences of the active-duty participants in that they lost their parenting/disciplinarian and financial manager roles.