Military‐Related Stress and Family Well‐Being Among Active Duty Army Families

• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Catherine Walker O'Neal,Justin A. Lavner
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12561

C W O’N  J A. L University of Georgia

Military-Related Stress and Family Well-Being

Among Active Duty Army Families

Objective: To examine associations between

objective (i.e., rank, time away for deployment,

combat deployments) and subjective (i.e., dif-

culty coping with military life) military-related

stressors and multiple domains of family

well-being, including marital interactions,

marital quality, parenting quality, and family

functioning.

Background: Military-related stressors are

associated with individual well-being, but

less is known about associations with family

well-being.

Method: Dyadic data from 266 active duty

(AD) service members and their civilian part-

ners were used to test a structural equation

model examining associations between objec-

tive and subjective military-related stressors

and both partners’ ratings of couple functioning

(marital quality, marital interactions),parenting

quality, and family functioning.

Results: For both partners, difculty coping

with military life was signicantly associated

with perceptions of multiple dimensions of fam-

ily well-being. Rank, time away for deployment,

and number of combat deployments were not

signicantly associated with any of the family

well-being variables.

Conclusion: Subjective, but not objective, indi-

cators of military-related stress were robustly

107 Family Science Center II, Department of Human Devel-

opment and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens,

GA 30602 (cwalker1@uga.edu).

KeyWords: family functioning, marital quality,military fam-

ilies, parenting quality, risk, stress.

associated with family well-being for AD and

civilian partners.

Implications: These ndings call attention to

the importance of understanding subjective

experiences of military-related stress for both

AD and civilian partners. Policy and program

considerations to improve military family mem-

bers’ coping abilities and enhance their family

well-being are discussed.

B

Members of the military and their families expe-

rience a range of stressors, including multiple

relocations and the service member’s absence

during deployment and training. A large body

of work has examined how these and other

stressors connected to military life are associ-

ated with individual well-being (e.g., Kelly &

Vogt, 2009). For instance, studies have found

that lower-ranking service members and those

with more deployment experience are at greater

risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD;

Armenta et al., 2018).

Relatively less attention has been devoted

to how military-related stressors are associated

with aspects of family well-being, such as

romantic relationship quality, parenting, and

overall family functioning. To address this

gap and provide a more robust understand-

ing of associations between different facets

of military-related stress and different dimen-

sions of family well-being, the current study

used dyadic data from 266 active duty (AD)

service members and their civilian partners to

examine how objective (rank, time away for

1280 Family Relations 70 (October 2021): 1280–1295

DOI:10.1111/fare.12561

Military-Related Stress and Family Well-Being 1281

deployment, combat deployments) and sub-

jective (difculty coping with military life)

military-related stressors were associated with

both partners’ perceptions of marital interac-

tions, marital quality, parenting quality, and

family functioning.

Previous Research on Military-Related Stress

and Family Well-Being

Core family science theories, such as the con-

textual model of family stress (Boss et al., 2017),

which incorporates Hill’s (1958) ABC-X model,

have emphasized the importance of considering

the roles of both objective and subjective expe-

riences of stress in the functioning of families

and their individual members. To date, however,

much of the research examining military-related

stress and family well-being has focused on

objective indicators of military-related stress

(e.g., rank, deployment) and has not simulta-

neously considered the subjective experience

of military-related stress (e.g., difculty coping

with military life), which may be uniquely asso-

ciated with family outcomes (see Hollingsworth

et al., 2016, as one exception). We provide a

brief summary of the previous military fam-

ily research that has examined how two rela-

tively objective stressors (i.e., rank and aspects

of deployment) and one subjective indicator of

stress (i.e., difculty coping with military life)

are associated with family well-being for service

members and their partners.

Rank

At the most basic level, rank distinguishes

enlisted service members from ofcers, although

there is a hierarchy within the distinctions as

well (e.g., E3, E4). Rank is an indicator of

where the family is situated within the military

context and culture and signies the fam-

ily’s social address within the military system

(Lucier-Greer et al., 2016). Research has shown

that lower rank is a risk factor for poor marital

outcomes, including marital distress (Anderson

et al., 2013) and relationship dissolution (Rowe

et al., 2013). Beyond marital research, a recent

study of 228 service members found an asso-

ciation between rank and family functioning,

noting that lower-ranking service members

perceived poorer family functioning than did

higher-ranking service members (Hollingsworth

et al., 2016).

These linkages between rank and family

well-being likely are attributed to a number of

interrelated factors. For instance, research indi-

cates that lower-ranking individuals generally

perceived that they have less family support

from unit leaders, fewer social connections,

and fewer relationship provisions (e.g., less

reassurance of worth, less attachment to others,

less social integration) than do higher-ranking

individuals (Lucier-Greer et al., 2016; O’Neal

et al., 2016, 2018). The lack of available social

support for lower-ranking individuals may

add stress and result in conictual interactions

between family members (O’Neal et al., 2016;

Westman, 2001).

There also may be demographic differences

that contribute to variations in family well-being

by rank. Some researchers have speculated that

because enlisted service members and their

spouses tend to be younger, less educated,

and married less time than ofcers and their

spouses, they have fewer nancial, social, and

psychological resources to draw from in times of

stress and are thereby less equipped to success-

fully navigate life in a military family (Booth

et al., 2007; Karney & Crown, 2011). Relatedly,

given that compensation is largely determined

by rank (e.g., Maclean & Edwards, 2010), lower

rank may relate to greater nancial strain, which

is robustly associated with marital and parenting

outcomes (e.g., Conger et al., 2010). Thus,

although there is some evidence that rank is

associated with couple and family well-being,

the extent to which rank explains variation

in these outcomes after accounting for other

factors (including other objective and subjective

indicators of stressful experiences and nancial

strain) is less clear.

Deployment

In addition to rank, military family research

often has considered deployment-related expe-

riences (e.g., number of deployments, length of

deployment, combat exposure) as stressors that

have the potential to harm family well-being.

This emphasis is primarily based on the notion

that because deployment separates the service

member from his or her family, activities and

communication that enhance intimacy and pro-

mote high-quality relationships are limited (Kar-

ney & Crown, 2007).

Although the stressful nature of deployment,

particularly combat deployment, is obvious,