Abstract
Military families are faced with specific challenges associated with the professional military context, such as the separation of the military member from the rest of the family, because of participation in international missions. This exploratory, qualitative study investigates the association between participation in such missions—before, during and after deployment—and marital relationships and parenting in Portuguese military families. A thematic analysis of interviews with 13 military’s spouses indicates that in the pre-deployment phase children are prepared for the physical absence of the military parent, as emphasis is placed on clear communication that promotes the parent-child relationship. Some days before separation, the couple become closer and more intimate, enjoying their last moments alone. During deployment, the main challenges are the additional parental tasks and responsibilities of the parent who stays at home, insecurity regarding the marital relationship and a common concern for the deployed partner’s well-being. On the other hand, the absence of the military parent may provide an opportunity for both the parent-child and couple relationships to be strengthened. During this phase the main resources used are communication technologies, which enable the absent parent/partner to be present psychologically and emotionally, as well as social support and personal resources/strengths. In the post-deployment phase, reintegration of the military member presents itself as a challenge to the family structure, and reorganization of parental responsibilities and roles is required. The couple also need to work on reestablishing intimacy. Despite some limitations which warrant attention, these results have important implications for research, given the lack of studies in this area in Portugal, and for clinical practice, since they offer pertinent clues regarding prevention and intervention within this type of family.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, E. S., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2011). On the home front: Stress for recently deployed army couples. Family Process, 50, 235–247. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2011.01357.x.
Angelis, K., & Segal, M. (2015). Transitions in the military and the family as greedy institutions: Original concept and current applicability. In R. Moelker, M. Andres, G. Bowen & P. Manigart (Eds.), Military families and war in the 21st century: Comparative perspectives (pp. 21–39). London: Routledge.
Barbudo, M., Francisco, R., & Santos, R. P. (2014). Vivências de militares em missões internacionais: O impacto nas relações conjugais [Military experiences in international missions: The impact on marital relationship]. Revista de Psicologia Militar, 23, 9–35.
Basham, K. (2008). Homecoming as safe haven or the new front: Attachment and detachment in military couples. Clinical Social Work Journal, 36, 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-007-0138-9.
Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. New York, NY: George Braziller.
Booth, B., & Lederer, S. (2012). Military families in an era of persistent conflict. In J. H. Laurence & M. D. Matthews (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Military Psychology (pp. 365–380). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bowen, G. L. (1990). The family adaptation model: A life course perspective. Alexandria, VA: U. S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Burrell, L. M., Adams, G. A., Durand, D. B., & Castro, C. A. (2006). The impact of military lifestyle demands on well-being, army, and family outcomes. Armed Forces & Society, 33, 43–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764206288804.
Cafferky, B., & Shi, L. (2015). Military wives emotionally coping during deployment: Balancing dependence and independence. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 43, 282–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2015.1034633.
Campbell-Sills, L., Cohan, S. L., & Stein, M. B. (2006). Relationship of resilience to personality, coping, and psychiatric symptoms on young adults. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 585–599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.05.001.
Carreiras, H. (1999). O que pensam os militares do peacekeeping [What do the military think about peacekeeping]. Estratégia-Revista de Estudos Internacionais, 14, 65–95.
Carreiras, H. (2015). The invisible families of Portuguese soldiers: From colonial wars to contemporary missions. In R. Moelker, M. Andres, G. Bowen & P. Manigart (Eds.), Military families and war in the 21st century: Original concept and current applicability (pp. 261–277). London: Routledge.
Chandra, A., Lara-Cinisomo, S., Jaycox, L. H., Tenielian, T., Burns, R. M., Ruder, T., & Han, B. (2010). Children on the homefront: The experience of children from military families. Pediatrics, 125, 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-1180.
Clever, M., & Segal, D. R. (2013). The demographics of military children and families. The Future of Children, 23(2), 13–39. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2013.0018.
Cox, M. J., & Paley, B. (1997). Families as systems. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 243–267. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.243.
Creech, S. K., Hadley, W., & Borsari, B. (2014). The impact of military deployment and reintegration on children and parenting: A systematic review. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 45, 452–464. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035055.
Davis, J., Ward, D. B., & Storm, C. (2011). The unsilencing of military wives: Wartime deployment experiences and citizen responsibility. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 37, 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00154.x.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2003). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In K. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (pp. 1–45). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
DeVoe, E. R., & Ross, A. (2012). The parenting cycle of deployment. Military Medicine, 177, 184–190. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-11-00292.
Dimiceli, E. E., Steinhardt, M. A., & Smith, S. E. (2010). Stressful experiences, coping strategies, and predictors of health-related outcomes among wives of deployed military servicemen. Armed Forces & Society, 36, 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X08324765.
Ender, M. G. (2006). Voices from the backseat: Demands of growing up in military families. In C. A. Castro, A. B. Adler & C. A. Britt (Eds.), Military life: The psychology of serving in peace and combat (Vol. 3, pp. 138–166). Bridgeport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Exército Português (2012). PDE 3-00 Operações. Ministério da Defesa Nacional: Exército Português.
Faber, A. J., Willerton, E., Clymer, S. R., MacDermid, S. M., & Weiss, H. M. (2008). Ambiguous absence, ambiguous presence: A qualitative study of military reserve families in wartime. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 222–230. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.22.2.222.
Frisby, B., Byrnes, K., Mansson, D., Booth-Butterfield, M., & Birmingham, M. (2011). Topic avoidance, everyday talk, and stress in romantic military and non-military couples. Communication Studies, 62, 241–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2011.553982.
Greene, T., Buckman, J., Dandeker, C., & Greenberg, N. (2010). How communication with families can both help and hinder service members’ mental health and occupational effectiveness on deployment. Military Medicine, 175, 745–749. https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-09-00278.
Hall, L. (2008). Counseling military families: What mental health professionals need to know.. New York, NY: Routledge.
Harms, P. D., Krasikova, D. V., Vanhove, A. J., Herian, M. N., & Lester, P. B. (2013). Stress and emotional well-being in military organizations. In P. Perrewe, J. Halbesleben & C. Rose (Eds.), Research In Occupational Stress and Well-Being (Vol. 11, pp. 103–122). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Houston, J. B., Pfefferbaum, B., Sherman, M. D., Melson, A. G., & Brand, M. W. (2013). Family communication across the military deployment experience: Child and spouse report of communication frequency and quality and associated emotions, behaviors, and reactions. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 18, 103–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2012.684576.
Jensen, P. S., Martin, D., & Watanabe, H. (1996). Children’s response to parental separation during operation desert storm. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 433–441. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199604000-00009.
Joseph, A. L., & Afifi, T. D. (2010). Military wives’ stressful disclosures to their deployed husbands: The role of protective buffering. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38, 412–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2010.513997.
Kelley, M. L. (1994). Military-induced separation in relation to maternal adjustment and children’s behaviors. Military Psychology, 6, 163–176. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp0603_2.
Knobloch, L. K., & Theiss, J. A. (2012). Experiences of U.S. Military couples during the post-deployment transition: Applying the relational turbulence model. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29, 423–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407511431186.
Knobloch, L. K., Pusateri, K. B., Ebata, A. T., & McGlaughlin, P. C. (2015). Experiences of military youth during a family member’s deployment: Changes, challenges, and opportunities. Youth & Society, 47, 319–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X12462040.
Knobloch, L. K., Mcaninch, K. G., Abendschein, B., Ebata, A. T., & McGlaughlin, P. C. (2016). Relational turbulence among military couples after reunion following deployment. Personal Relationships, 23, 742–758. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12148.
Lavee, Y., McCubbin, H. I., & Patterson, J. M. (1985). The double ABCX model of family stress and adaptation: An empirical test by analysis of structural equations with latent variables. Journal of Marriage & Family, 47(4), 811–825.
Lester, P., & Flake, E. (2013). How wartime military service affects children and families. Future of Children, 23, 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2013.0015.
Lester, P., Peterson, K., Reeves, J., Knauss, L., Glover, D., Mogil, C., & Beardslee, W. (2010). The long war and parental combat deployment: Effects on military children and at-home spouses. Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 310–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.01.003.
Louie, A. D., & Cromer, L. D. (2014). Parent–child attachment during the deployment cycle: Impact on reintegration parenting stress. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice, 45, 496–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036603.
Martins, T., Santos, R. P., & Francisco, R. (2014). Mudanças familiares e rede social dos cônjuges de militares em missão: Um estudo exploratório [Family changes and social network of military’ spouses: An exploratory study]. Revista de Psicologia Militar, 23, 131–155.
Merolla, A. J. (2010). Relational maintenance during military deployment: Perspectives of wives of deployed US soldiers. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38, 4–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909880903483557.
Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Moore, B. L. (2014). In-depth interviewing. In J. Soeters, P. M. Shields & S. Rietjens (Eds.), Routledge handbook of research methods on military studies (pp. 116–128). New York, NY: Routledge.
Olson, D. H. (2000). Circumplex model of marital and family sytems. Journal of Family Therapy, 22(2), 144–167.
Padden, D. L., Connors, R. A., & Agazio, J. G. (2011). Stress, coping, and well-being in military spouses during deployment separation. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 33, 247–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945910371319.
Paley, B., Lester, P., & Mogil, C. (2013). Family systems and ecological perspectives on the impact of deployment on military families. Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review, 16, 245–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0138-y.
Peebles-Kleiger, M. J., & Kleiger, J. H. (1994). Re-integration stress for desert storm families: Wartime deployments and family trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7, 173–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102943.
Pincus, S., House, R., Christenson, J., & Alder, L. (2001). The emotional cycle of deployment: A military family perspective. Army Medical Department Journal, 2, 15–23.
Pincus, S., Leiner, B., Black, N., & Singh, T. W. (2011). The impact of deployment on military families and children. In E. C. Ritchie (Ed.), Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (pp. 487–501). Washington DC: Office of The Surgeon General at TMM Publications.
Reddy, M. K., Meis, L. A., Erbes, C. R., Polusny, M. A., & Compton, J. S. (2011). Associations among experiential avoidance, couple adjustment, and interpersonal aggression in returning Iraqi war veterans and their partners. Journal of Consulting And Clinical Psychology, 79, 515-520. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023929, http://mo4h.missouri.edu/programs/military/resources/manual/Deployment-Cycles.pdf
Riggs, S. A., & Cusimano, A. (2014). The dynamics of military deployment in the family system: What makes a parent fit for duty? Family Court Review, 52, 381–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12099.
Riggs, S. A., & Riggs, D. S. (2011). Risk and resilience in military families experiencing deployment: The role of the family attachment network. Journal of Family Psychology, 25, 675–687. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025286.
Rotter, J. C., & Boveja, M. E. (1999). Counseling military families. Family Journal, 7, 379–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480799074009.
Saltzman, W., Pynoos, R., Lester, P., Layne, C., & Beardslee, W. (2013). Enhacing familiy resilience through family narrative co-construction. Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review, 16, 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0142-2.
Sayers, S. L. (2011). Family reintegration difficulties and couples therapy for military veterans and their spouses. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 18, 108–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2010.03.002.
Schachman, K. (2010). Online fathering: The experience of first-time fatherhood in combat-deployed troops. Nursing Research, 59, 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0b013e3181c3ba1d.
Schumm, W. R., Bell, B., Ender, M. G., & Rice, R. E. (2004). Expectations, use, and evaluation of communication media among deployed peacekeepers. Armed Forces & Society, 30, 649–662. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X0403000407.
Segal, M. W. (1986). The military and the family as greedy institutions. Armed Forces & Society, 13(1), 9–38.
Segal, M. W., Lane, M., & Fisher, A. (2015). Conceptual model of military career and family life course events, intersections, and effects on well-being. Military Behavioral Health, 3, 95–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2015.1009212.
Shaw, S. M., & Dawson, D. (2001). Purposive leisure: Examining parental discourses on family activities. Leisure Sciences, 23, 217–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400152809098.
Sheppard, S. C., Malatras, J. W., & Israel, A. C. (2010). The impact of deployment on US military families. American Psychologist, 65, 599–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020332.
Simon, J. B., Murphy, J. J., & Smith, S. M. (2005). Understanding and fostering family resilience. The Family Journal, 13(4), 427–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480705278724.
Stafford, E. M., & Grady, B. A. (2003). Military family support. Pediatric Annals, 32, 110–115. https://doi.org/10.3928/0090-4481-20030201-08.
Swenson, R., & Wolff, J. (2011). Deployment for military families carries emotional and behavioral consequences. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 27, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.20149.
Tomforde, M. (2015). The emotional cycle of deployment. In R. Moelker, M. Andres, G. Bowen & P. Manigart (Eds.), Military families and war in the 21st century: Original concept and current applicability (pp. 87–106). London: Routledge.
Thompson, C. J. (1997). Interpreting consumers: A framework for from the texts of hermeneutical marketing insights deriving consumers’ consumption stories. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(4), 438–455. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151963.
Van Breda, A. (1996). Emotional cycles of deployment in the South African naval family: A collection of studies and essays. Institute for maritime medicine, Social work department. http://www.vanbreda.org/adrian/pubs/emotional_cycles_of_deployment.pdf.
Wadsworth, S. M., Lester, P., Marini, C., Cozza, S., Sornborger, J., Strouse, T., & Beardslee, W. (2013). Approaching family-focused systems of care for military and veteran families. Military Behavioral Health, 1, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2012.721062.
Walsh, F. (2003). Family resilience: A framework for clinical practice. Family Process, 42, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2003.00001.x.
Walsh, T. B., Dayton, C. J., Erwin, M. S., Muzik, M., Busuito, A., & Rosenblum, K. L. (2014). Fathering after military deployment: Parenting challenges and goals of fathers of young children. Health & Social Work, 39, 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlu005.
Warner, C. H., Appenzeller, G. N., Warner, C., & Grieger, T. (2009). Psychological effects of deployments on military families. Psychiatric Annals, 39, 56–63. https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20090201-11.
Werner, T. L., & Shannon, C. S. (2013). Doing more with less: Women’s leisure during their partners’ military deployment. Leisure Sciences, 35, 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2013.739897.
Willerton, E., Schwarz, R., Wadsworth, S., & Oglesby, M. (2011). Military fathers’ perspectives on involvement. Journal of Family Psychology, 25, 521–530. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024511.
Wood, S., Scarville, J., & Gravino, K. S. (1995). Waiting wives: Separation and reunion among army wives. Armed Forces & Society, 21(2), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X9502100204.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the military families who participated and to Marta Gil for her work on the translation of the manuscript into English.
Author Contributions
AB and TM: executed the study, analyzed the data and wrote part of the results, and wrote the paper. RF: designed and coordinated the study, collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. MTR: designed the study and collaborated in the editing of the final manuscript. RPS: designed the study, established contact with study participants, collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bóia, A., Marques, T., Francisco, R. et al. International Missions, Marital Relationships and Parenting in Military Families: An Exploratory Study. J Child Fam Stud 27, 302–315 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0873-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0873-7