Reintegration Difficulty of Military Couples Following Deployment
Abstract
The reentry of service members back into family life after deployment can be extremely challenging for military couples. Understanding the factors that contribute to the reintegration difficulty of returning service members and at-home partners is essential for attracting, retaining, and safeguarding the nation's best military personnel. The goal of this project was to evaluate how peoples mental health symptoms and romantic relationship characteristics predict their difficulty with reintegration. The research design was an 8-wave longitudinal study in which 555 military couples completed an online survey once per month for eight consecutive months beginning at homecoming. Military couples were eligible to participate if (a) individuals were involved in a romantic relationship, and (b) both partners completed the Wave 1 survey during the first week after reunion following deployment. Findings point to the key roles of mental health symptoms and relationship characteristics in the reintegration difficulty experienced by returning servicemembers and at-home partners (Knobloch, Knobloch-Fedders, and Yorgason, under review). Supplementary results indicate that people's reports of communication during deployment predict their symptoms of anxiety during the post-deployment transition (Knoblauch, Knobloch-Fedders, and Yorgason, 2018). The data suggest several empirically-grounded recommendations for reintegration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1062512
Entities
People
- Leanne K Knobloch
- Lynne M Knobloch-Fedders
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign