A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Combat Deployments on Military Personnel and their Families
Abstract
Families play a unique and complex role in the well-being of the military fighting force, particularly in the wake of combat. It is recognized that family adjustment can impact significantly on organizational factors such as readiness, morale and retention service members (Booth et al., 2007). Further, the family provides key elements of social support following combat exposure, one of the strongest predictors of successful adjustment following trauma associated with lower rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study aims to: (1) examine family adjustment and its role in promoting resilience among military personnel; (2) document the impact of combat deployment on relationships; (3) identify pre-deployment factors that increase or decrease resilience among military families; (4) to identify possible mechanisms through which individual and family adjustment impact one another; and (5) to model the longitudinal course of adjustment over the deployment cycle. Approximately 500 deploying military service members and their spouses will participate. Participants will be asked to complete several measures of individual and relationship functioning repeatedly across a 21-month period that includes a combat deployment. Evaluations will begin about one month before the deployment and will be repeated about every four months.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA519301
Entities
People
- David S. Riggs
Organizations
- Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine