Testing a Military Family Stress Model

• Author: David S. DeGarmo,Osnat Zamir,Abigail H. Gewirtz
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12282

Testing a Military Family Stress Model

ABIGAIL H. GEWIRTZ*

DAVID S. DEGARMO

†

OSNAT ZAMIR

‡

The current study examines a military family stress model, evaluating associations

between deployment-related stressors (i.e., deployment length/number, posttrauma tic

stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms) and parent, child, parenting, and dyadic adjustment

among families in which a parent had previously deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the

recent conflicts. Married families (N=293) with at least one child between the ages of 4

and 12 were recruited from a Midwestern state. Service members were from the Reserve

Component (National Guard or Reserves); fathers (N=253) and/or mothers had deployed

(N=45) to the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Multiple-method (observations of par-

enting and couple interactions; questionnaires) and multiple informant measures were

gathered online and in the homes of participants, from parents, children, and te achers.

Findings demonstrated associations between mothers’ and fathers’ PTSD symptoms and a

latent variable of child adjustment comprising teacher, parent, and child report. Mothers’

but not fathers’ PTSD symptoms were also associated with dyadic adju stment and parent-

ing practices; parenting practices were in turn associated with child adjustment. The

results are discussed in terms of their implications for military family stress research and

interventions to support and strengthen parents and families after deployment.

Keywords: Military; Families; Children; Couples; Family Stress Model

Fam Proc 57:415–431, 2018

INTRODUCTION

The wars of the first 15 years of this century have resulted in combat deployments of

almost two million service members of whom approximately 40% are parents (Defense

Manpower Data Center, 2015). Almost two million children have been affected by the

deployment of a parent to Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn (OIF,

OEF, OND; Department of Defense, 2009). Moreover, almost half of the United States’

fighting force comprises “civilian soldiers”—National Guard and Reserve (NG/R) service

members who live, for the most part, civilian lives (Defense Manpower Data Center,

2015). Despite the large numbers of U.S. families affected by the recent conflicts, rela-

tively little is known about the family adjustment of parents, couples, and their children

*Department of Family Social Science & Institute of Child Development, & Institute for Translational

Research in Children’s Mental Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

†

Department of Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership, Prevention Science Institute, University of

Oregon, Eugene, OR.

‡

Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Abigail H. Gewirtz, Department of

Family Social Science & University of Minnesota, 290 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Ave, St Paul, MN 55108,

MN. E-mail: agewirtz@umn.edu

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (R01-DA030114) to the

first author, and in part, by grant P50 DA035763.

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Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12282

in the wake of parents’ deployment to war. In this article, we propose and empirically test

a military family stress model. Using multiple-method and multiple-informant data, we

examine associations of deployment-related stressors with three key elements of family

functioning: parenting practices, dyadic adjustment, and children’s adjustment, in NG/R

families in which at least one parent previously deployed to OIF, OEF, or OND.

The last decade has seen a significant increase in empirical research on military fami-

lies, but studies have been hampered by small sample sizes and mono-informant data (i.e.,

questionnaire data from a single member of a family, typically a nondeployed mother) or,

at best, data from two parents. With few exceptions (e.g., Oshri et al., 2015) studies have

typically not gathered multiple-method (i.e., questionnaire and observational data) and

multiple-informant family data (i.e., from parents, children, and teachers), both of which

increase the robustness of findings. Most studies have sampled active-duty, rather than

reserve component families (Siegel, Davis, & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child

and Family Health and Section on Uniformed Services, 2013). Several theoretical and con-

ceptual models have been put forth to understand military family adjustment; few have

been tested empirically (see, e.g., Bowen, Martin, & Mancini, 2013; Lavee, McCubbin, &

Patterson, 1985).

Family Stress Models

Family stress models seek to explain the mechanisms through which external stressors

such as marital transitions, poverty, and psychopathology affect family functioning, by

considering the impact of these stressors on the behaviors of parents and child(ren). Fam-

ily stress models were initially proposed by Glen Elder and his colleagues, who sought to

understand the influence of economic disadvantage in the Great Depression on fathers’

behaviors and child outcomes (e.g., Elder, Nguyen, & Caspi, 1985). Elder’s seminal

research, and subsequently Conger et al.’s (2002) research with farm families in Iowa,

demonstrated that socioeconomic stress led to feelings of economic pressure in parents,

which in turn led to parents’ distress, which negatively impacted children’s adjustment

through impaired parenting, and/or impaired couple or dyadic adjustment (e.g., Conger

et al., 2002; Simons et al., 2016).

These mediation models thus posit that stressful family transitions or processes (e.g.,

poverty, divorce, parental mental illness) increase parental psychological distress, which

in turn impairs parenting practices and/or dyadic adjustment, increasing risks for child

maladjustment (see Barnett, 2008, for a review of family stress models). For example, cou-

ple relationships have been shown to mediate the relationship between poverty and par-

enting practices (e.g., Conger et al., 2002). In a different stressor context, parenting

practices mediated the relationship between divorce-related sequelae and their effects on

child adjustment (Forgatch & DeGarmo, 1999; Forgatch, Patterson, Degarmo, & Beldavs,

2009). In a study examining shared and nonshared environmental influences on family

functioning in the context of intimate partner violence, hostile unsupportive marital rela-

tions were associated with coercive parenting, which in turn predicted child anger

(Rhoades et al., 2011). Relevant rese arch also has focused on the detrimental impact of

parental psychopathology, particularly maternal depression, on dyadic adjustmen t, par-

enting practices, and child adjustment (e.g., Downey & Coyne, 1990; Gartstein & Fagot,

2003).

Deployment-related family stressors

We conceptualize wartime deployment and its consequences (i.e., posttraumatic stress

disorder [PTSD] symptoms) as family stressors because of the separation of a parent ser-

vice member from spouse/partner and children, and the concomitant danger (and potential

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