Publication year
2013
Citation Title
Doing more with less: Women’s leisure during their partners’ military deployment
Journal Name
Leisure Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Journal Volume
35
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
63-80
DOI
10.1080/01490400.2013.739897
Summary
Canadian women with a partner who was deployed at least six months completed semi-structured interviews about their experiences with stress and leisure activities during their partners' deployment. Two key themes emerged: the participants' experiences of becoming a quasi-single parent, and the emotional burden of having a partner in a dangerous combat zone.
Key Findings
Women reported a loss of personal leisure during partner deployment, while increasing family leisure activities as a coping mechanism.
Participants expressed increased stress about their partners’ well-being and their children’s safety and well-being in the absence of their father.
Women felt pressure managing their daily routines in the absence of their partner’s support with household tasks and childcare responsibilities.
Implications for Program Leaders
Provide workshops to help deployed military members’ spouses learn about available supportive services to handle increased household responsibilities
Modify military leisure programs to include parent-child activities that focus on partners of deployed Service members to foster social support and wellness among military spouses
Offer support groups to Service members and their partners during reintegration to help them with the transition back into their roles and responsibilities
Implications for Policy Makers
Recommend partnerships among military-based and community-based programs to help military families feel more comfortable participating in leisure activities that are not on installations
Support the development of structured leisure activities for military families at installations
Urge the training of professionals to better identify military spouses who have difficulties managing roles and responsibilities during deployment
Methods
The sample was recruited from a Canadian Forces Base in Atlantic Canada by email and recruitment posters.
Participants completed semi-structured interviews in their homes about their leisure experiences during their spouses’ deployment.
Based on the interviews, the authors determined themes and patterns of the responses and, after compilation, were shared with participants to ensure validity.
Participants
Ten women (age range 23-40 years) who were married or engaged to a deployed military member who had been gone for at least 6 months completed semi-structured interviews.
All women worked (70% full time, 30% part time), and had at least one child (range 1-3 children), with children ages ranging from 12 months - 13 years.
The race of the sample was predominately White (n = 9), and one participant was multiracial.
Limitations
The sample of spouses were employed, which may have created a sample with more resources to participate in leisure activities and their experiences may not be applicable to unemployed spouses.
The sample was exclusively Canadian and, therefore, the experiences may not generalize to American military families.
There was no standard definition of “leisure activities” which made it difficult to compare participants’ answers among each other.
Avenues for Future Research
Explore how Service members’ return from deployment impacts their spouses’ leisure activities
Examine spouses’ leisure activities during deployment in a U.S. military population
Conduct studies on the impact of peer support groups to help increase spouses’ leisure activities during their partners’ deployment
Focus
Multiple Branches
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Branch
Military Component
Abstract
Women whose partners have been deployed on military missions during wartime typically experience increased stress as they adjust to maintaining work, family, and household roles. The purpose of this study was to explore leisure in the lives of women during their partners’ deployment. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 10 employed mothers whose partners had been deployed for at least a six-month period. Findings indicated that the loss of daily support from partners and concern for partners’ safety contributed to women shifting their focus from individual to family leisure as a means of coping and caring for their children.
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