Publication year
2009
Citation Title
Contradictions and praxis contextualized by wartime deployment: Wives' perspectives revealed through relational dialectics.
Journal Name
Communication Monographs
Journal Volume
76
Issue Number
4
Page Numbers
421-442
DOI
10.1080/03637750903300239
Summary
Strategies that military couples use to manage contradicting experiences or competing demands during deployment may affect their marital satisfaction and personal stress. Contradictions that deployed Soldiers' wives recalled experiencing were coded and organized into themes. Three main contradictions of deployment were identified (i.e., tension between uncertainty and certainty, autonomy and connection, and openness and being closed), and couples managed these contradictions with strategies of denial, balance or compromise, and moving back and forth between conflicting needs.
Key Findings
Army wives experienced three primary contradictions during their husbands' deployments: tension between uncertainty and certainty (pre-deployment), autonomy and connection (deployment), and openness and being closed (post-deployment).
Participants’ recollections revealed they negotiated these conflicts primarily through denial, but their reports also reflected cyclic alternation (i.e., moving back and forth between conflicting needs) and balance or compromise.
Although spouses were sometimes in agreement as to the use of denial, several instances existed in which the partners disagreed, resulting in conflict that complicated efforts to negotiate the contradictions.
Implications for Program Leaders
Offer classes to military couples that teach a range of strategies to deal with contradictions that arise during pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment
Educate members of military couples about techniques to manage difficult emotions when dealing with deployment contradictions
Provide military spouses with training courses teaching skills they may need in order to undertake new responsibilities during deployment (e.g., financial management, household repairs and maintenance)
Implications for Policy Makers
Recommend education for professionals working with military families about the contradictions and opposing needs military spouses may experience during each phase of deployment
Encourage the implementation of awareness campaigns to reduce stigma regarding Service members and their families accessing mental health services
Promote the use of new technology that increases opportunities for regular communication between deployed Service members and their families
Methods
Spouses of deployed or recently deployed Soldiers were recruited through flyers, announcements at family readiness group meetings, military chaplain referrals, and word-of-mouth.
Army spouses were interviewed regarding experiences during deployment, marital satisfaction, communication, and changes during deployment, and personal stress.
Contradictions spouses experienced during deployment and strategies to handle contradictions were identified, coded, and organized into themes.
Participants
Participants included 50 wives of Active Duty or National Guard Soldiers (52% officers, 40% enlisted, 8% unknown rank) who were currently deployed to (18%) or recently returned from (82%) Iraq (58%), Afghanistan (38%), or an undisclosed location (4%) between 2003-2005.
On average, Army wives were 32 years old, had been married 7 years, and had 2 children; no race/ethnicity data were provided.
Soldiers had primarily experienced one (70%) or two (22%) deployments.
Limitations
Participants who participated may differ from those who did not participate, especially considering primarily snowball sampling methods.
Interviews were retrospective and certain biases may have influenced the recall of memories.
Coding of the type of strategies Army wives used to manage contradictions (e.g., denial, compromise) were determined by researchers, potentially introducing bias.
Avenues for Future Research
Conduct a similar study in a sample of spouses from all branches of the military, including both male and female military spouses
Examine the effects of communication patterns and combat disclosure post-deployment on couples' marital satisfaction and individuals' stress and well-being.
Explore the changes in communication style, marital satisfaction, and personal stress across all phases of deployment in real-time by collecting longitudinal data
Focus
Army
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Branch
Military Component
Abstract
With the continued US military presence throughout the world, it is important to understand the struggles of family members left behind during war, because they are important to the ‘‘success’’ of military marriages and potentially deployments. We asked 50 Army wives to discuss their experiences before, during, and after their husbands’ most recent deployment. Using relational dialectics as the theoretical framework for understanding marriage and deployment, we identified three contradictions (uncertainty-certainty during predeployment, autonomy-connection during the deployment, and openness-closedness during reunion) and several praxis patterns within them, some of which reflect potentially problematic dynamics for these military partners.
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