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., difficulty 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 partners were used to test a structural equation model examining associations between objective 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, difficulty coping with military life was significantly associated with perceptions of multiple dimensions of family well-being. Rank, time away for deployment, and number of combat deployments were not significantly associated with any of the family well-being variables. Conclusion Subjective, but not objective, indicators of military-related stress were robustly associated with family well-being for AD and civilian partners. Implications These findings 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 members' coping abilities and enhance their family well-being are discussed.