| Military careers span the childbearing years, and many active-duty women are beginning to have children. After six weeks maternity leave and possibly additional regular leave, these women return to duty full-time. From three months after childbirth, they may be deployed anywhere in the world, leaving their babies behind. My prediction for this dissertation is that active-duty Air Force new mothers and their families are negatively impacted by their life circumstance and by facing the likelihood of deployment. This negative impact may take the form of an increase in parenting stress, occupational stress, depressive symptoms, and state but not trait anxiety.; This descriptive study examined thirteen people, nine active-duty United States Air Force women and four of their spouses, who had their first child within six weeks to twelve months of their participation. Participants were recruited through the departments of Family Practice, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics at David Grant Medical Center, Travis, Air Force Base, California, and Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Exclusionary criteria minimized confounding variables such as problems with the physical health of the baby. The instruments used in this survey-based study included a demographic questionnaire that also measured perceived likelihood of deployment, the Parenting Stress Index, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Occupational Stress Index. On the basis of previous studies of military families, the following predictions were made about active-duty military new mothers and their spouses: (1) they experience significant parenting stress, (2) they experience significant depressive symptoms, (3) they experience significant state anxiety but not trait anxiety, (4) they experience significant occupational stress. An examination of individual and group scores for each of the questionnaires was used to look for general trends related to the aforementioned predictions.; The study found that this group experiences increased parenting stress and occupational stress. The study found that overall anxiety was not a significant problem for this group. Another finding was that depression did not seem to be a problem for this group. A series of individual case studies explored the specific circumstances of each of the study participants. |
