Family Resilience and the Fortunes of War

Military families have been a subject of concern due to increasing divorce rates and child maltreatment that have been directly linked to the number and length of combat deployments. In contrast many military families show positive resilience in the wake of multiple deployments. This article looks at several special situations where military families are faced with serious challenges after deployment: soldiers returning with post-traumatic stress disorder, soldiers receiving serious injuries, and those killed in action. McCubbin's Family Resilience Model is applied as a theoretical tool for understanding not only the stressors military families face, but other factors that buffer stress and assist in problem solving and coping.