Publication year
2017
Citation Title
Associations between prior deployments and marital satisfaction among Army couples.
Journal Name
Journal of Marriage and Family
Journal Volume
79
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
147-160
DOI
10.1111/jomf.12329
Summary
The deployment of a spouse who serves in the military can place additional stress on a marriage. This study sought to examine the explicit relationship between prior deployments, combat exposure, and symptoms of PTSD on couples’ level of marital satisfaction. Findings revealed that more deployments, especially combat-related, lowered marital satisfaction among military couples.
Key Findings
Marital satisfaction was lower among couples who had experienced one or more deployments.
Soldiers who deployed to a combat zone and were exposed to traumatic events during combat were more likely to report lower marital satisfaction.
Combat exposure was directly related to PTSD symptoms and PTSD was directly related to marital satisfaction; couples were less satisfied with their marriages when the Service member reported more PTSD symptoms.
Implications for Program Leaders
Offer opportunities for military couples, such as “date nights,” to increase marital satisfaction, especially before or after a recent deployment
Provide resources for Service members and their families on ways to cope with traumatic events experienced during deployment
Distribute information regarding PTSD symptoms and resources for support to military families
Implications for Policy Makers
Encourage collaboration among DoD programs and community-based services that work with Service members who have experienced combat exposure and traumatic events related to deployment
Continue to support programs and resources for minimizing PTSD symptoms in Service members
Support bringing awareness to the effects of combat exposure and PTSD among professionals who serve military families
Methods
The sample was randomly selected from a longitudinal survey, the Deployment Life Study; couples where both Service members (Army branch only) and spouses participated were included.
Data were collected via telephone interviews and online surveys assessing marital satisfaction, exposure to combat trauma, symptoms of PTSD, and prior engagement in deployment.
Statistical analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between prior deployment, combat trauma, symptoms of PTSD, and dyadic marital satisfaction.
Participants
A total of 1,358 married Army couples were included in this study; Soldiers were mostly male (92%) and spouses were mostly female (92%).
A majority of the sample (75% Soldiers; 74% spouses) was White, while 9% of Soldiers were Black (8% spouses), 9% Latino (10% spouses), 1% Asian-American (2% spouses), and 6% indicated other (5% spouses).
Ages of study participants was not provided.
Eighty percent of Soldiers served Active Duty, while 5% served in the Reserves, and 15% National Guard.
Limitations
The study assessed marital satisfaction at one time point, therefore it is difficult to determine the long-term effects of PTSD symptoms and combat exposure on marital satisfaction.
Only married couples from the Army were included in this study; this limits generalizability to other couples from various military branches.
The study took a combined average marital satisfaction rating from both the Service member and spouse, thus may limit the ability to determine the true satisfaction of each individual in the couple.
Avenues for Future Research
Examine additional factors, outside of PTSD symptoms and combat trauma, related to couples’ marital satisfaction
Determine the long-term effects of deployment on marriages; comparing those who are married to those who have recently divorced
Develop a more comprehensive measure for marital satisfaction to determine the true rating for each individual’s level of satisfaction
Focus
Army
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Branch
Military Component
Abstract
Although the experience of deployments has been described as devastating to married life, evidence linking deployments directly to poorer marital functioning has been sparse. The analyses described in this article compare associations between prior deployments and current marital satisfaction across four different ways of measuring prior deployment within a large and representative sample of married Army service members and their spouses. Results indicate that the experience of prior deployments is associated with significantly lower current marital satisfaction among military couples. The association is disproportionately strong for first deployments and first cumulative months of deployment and weakens over subsequent deployment experiences. Most of these associations, but not all, can be accounted for by the fact that service members who have been deployed are more likely to have experienced traumatic events and to experience posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, both of which are independently associated with lower levels of marital satisfaction.
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