The Psychological Well-being of Military Families & Reservists

www.bps.org.uk

Born Into the Military: Deployment

status affects wife and child

perceptions of family functioning

Leanne Simpson

Born into the military: Deployment status affects wife and child perceptions

of family functioning

Leanne K Simpson

Background• A serving soldier’s family may be the most valuable resource in

terms of the well-being of the soldier: positive familyfunctioning boosts their morale, retention and work abilities(Shinsek, 2003).

• Undergraduate final year research project

• First hand experience of military life and the deployment cycle.

MethodParticipants

34 non-military families and 78 British military families were recruited:39 were non-deployed families (NDF), who had not undertaken a tour of Afghanistan in last 12 months.29 were post-deployed families (PDF), who’s husbands had returned from a tour of Afghanistan in last 12 months (Op Herrick 13),

10 were currently deployed families (CDF), who’s husbands were currently on a tour of Afghanistan (Op Herrick 14).

Measures Kansas Marital Satisfaction (KMS) scaleA brief 3-item 7 point scale (7= Extremely Satisfied; 1= Extremely Dissatisfied).Family Functioning

The Family Adaptation and Cohesion Evaluation Scale IV (FACES IV) measured family cohesion and family flexibility using six subscales and theadditional scales of Family Communication and Family Satisfaction:

Cohesion

Flexibility

Disengaged

Enmeshed

Rigid

Chaotic

Family communication addresses many of the most important aspects of communication in a family system while family satisfaction assesses thesatisfaction of family members in regard to family cohesion, flexibility and communication (Olson, 2011).

Children’s Drawings

Drawings were coded using a 7 point Parent-Child Alliance scale (1= Very Low; 7= Very High)

ResultsSignificant deployment group differences on marital satisfaction,(F(3,108)=9.69, p=<.001), with NDF having the highest marital satisfaction.

ResultsSignificant effect of deployment stage on the combined (balanced andunbalanced) scales of cohesion and flexibility (F(3,108)=9.57, p=<.001).

ResultsSignificant effect of deployment stage on satisfaction with family communication (F(3,108)=53.62, p<.001, R2=

.598).

Significant effect of deployment stage on reports of overall family satisfaction (F(3,108)=35.1, p=<.0001,

R2=.49).

Significant effect of deployment stage on level of PCA scored in drawings (F(3,108)=98.27, p=<.001, R2=.732),

with PDF and CDF scoring highly .

Children’s Sample Drawings

Limitations

• Data not collected from fathers.

• Not all stages of the deployment cycle represented.

• Rank not controlled for.

• Previous experience of deployment cycle not controlled for.

• Future research would benefit from a longitudinal design rather than the between subjects design .

Conclusion

• Military families are affected by periods of operational deployment, with families of currently-deployed personnel affected the most adversely, and post-deployed families also affected.

• Army only 1 third of the Armed Forces

Acknowledgements

This project was Leanne Simpson’s undergraduatedissertation, supervised by Dr Rachel Pye, at theUniversity of Winchester.

With thanks to the Second Royal Tank Regimentand Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Evans, LieutenantColonel Nicholas Cowey MBE and Captain DavidHenretty.

The Psychological Well-being of Military Families & Reservists

www.bps.org.uk