Today's Army Spouse Experiences In Garrison: Problem Solving, Resource Use, and Connections to the Army Community
Abstract
The U.S. Army provides many resources to help soldiers and their families cope with major life events associated with Army service, such as moves associated with new assignments or deployments, and resources that can help with the day-to-day needs of military families. Although these resources are available to all Army families, services or programs are administered at the local level through community-based services or through Army garrisons. However, families can have difficulties finding the appropriate resources and accessing them. The research discussed in this report examines the experiences of Army spouses in navigating the resource system to find the help they need to address a wide variety of problems. Because the Army community can serve an important role for Army families, we focus in particular on whether these experiences vary across garrisons and the connections that Army spouses make with each other and the Army community as a whole, as well as how these connections foster better resource navigation and more effective resource use. The research team used a mixed-methods approach to examine Army spouses problem solving processes and the role of the Army community, supplementing quantitative analysis of previously collected results from the Todays Army Spouse Survey, fielded in 2018, with additional qualitative interviews of 42 Army spouses who had participated in that survey. An earlier report detailed the overall findings from the survey (see Trail, Sims, and Tankard, 2019), and the current survey data analysis explores whether spouses problem-solving processes and experiences of the Army community differ across garrisons, including the most pressing challenges spouses face, needs associated with those challenges, use of resources to receive help with those needs, and whether or not their needs were met. The semistructured telephone interviews focused primarily on spouses experiences with Army resources and programs and the Army community.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1155215
Entities
People
- Carra S. Sims
- Kimberly Curry Hall
- Thomas E Trail
Organizations
- RAND Corporation