An exploratory study of military deployment and its impact on marriage and family of soldiers

After more than five years of ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has continued to wage the war on terror as its number one priority. As the two campaigns have brought turbulence to military families in terms of preserving marriages and military careers, military leaders still need to develop more effective programs and to ensure military personnel are aware of the programs that are available for assisting military spouses in coping with the stress of military deployment. The current quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between military deployment and its impact on marriages and family of soldiers. The sample consisted of 133 active-duty Army personnel located in Yongsan, South Korea, who had been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and/or both contingency areas. Although the analyses revealed mixed results in the relationship between psychological stressors and divorce within the group that divorced after entering the military compared to those who remained married, the correlational analysis indicated there was a statistically significant relationship between the composite measure of divorce and the composite measure of psychological stress. In addition, military programs aimed at helping soldiers cope with deployment stress were not effective in helping soldiers avoid divorce. The conclusions in chapter 5 incorporate a discussion of the reasons for the mixed results. Recommendations for future study include conducting similar research in more than one geographical location and including spouses in the study.