Military families pulling double duty.

• Position: War in Iraq - Brief article

U.S. service members and their families have to do double duty when adjusting to repeated deployments, but researchers from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., are providing information to help the government support the more than 1,300,000 families of active duty and reserve personnel.

"Repeated deployments mean that the postdeployment period is also a predeployment period," explains Shelley MacDermid, director of the Center for Families and associate dean in the College of Consumer and Family Sciences. "Members and families have a dual set of tasks: getting their daily lives reestablished at home and also preparing and training for their next time period away from home."

One of the most universal experiences associated with deployment is that relationships go through a complex set of transitions that can take considerable adjustment time when members return home to their spouses, MacDermid notes. "About half of the participants in the study on the reserve unit reported a 'honeymoon' in well-being following return from deployment, which was actually a smaller portion than we expected...