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Reporting for Double Duty: A Dyadic Perspective on the Biopsychosocial Health of Dual Military Air Force Couples

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Abstract

There are approximately 1.5 million active duty service members in today's military and approximately 726,000 (56.1 %) of these individuals are married. Therefore, healthy couple functioning is important for the military community. Although there is current literature on couple functioning in non-dual military couples, there is limited research on the marital health of dual military couples. This study explored the marital health (marital satisfaction, adjustment, and quality) and stress among dual Air Force couples in relation to length of time in service, rank, deployments, and level of physiological stress. Results indicated that husbands' deployments, rank, and time in service were related to his physiological distress, wives' rank was negatively related to her marital adjustment and marital quality, and husbands' marital satisfaction was negatively related to wives' rank. Future research recommendations and implications for using a biopsychosocial approach for assessing dual military couples are provided.

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Acknowledgments

This research and development project was conducted by East Carolina University and is made possible by a cooperative agreement that was awarded and administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), at Fort Detrick, MD, under Contract Number: W81XWH1120221. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this article are those of the author(s)/East Carolina University and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense and should not be construed as an official DoD/Army position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation. No official endorsement should be made.

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  1. Medical Family Therapy Program, East Carolina University, 108 Rivers Building, Greenville, NC, 27858, USA

    Meghan H. Lacks, Angela L. Lamson & Carmen Russoniello

  2. University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN, USA

    Melissa E. Lewis

  3. Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, AZ, USA

    Mark B. White

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Lacks, M.H., Lamson, A.L., Lewis, M.E. et al. Reporting for Double Duty: A Dyadic Perspective on the Biopsychosocial Health of Dual Military Air Force Couples. Contemp Fam Ther 37, 302–315 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-015-9341-y

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