1. 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
2. Born into the military:
Deployment status affects
wife and child perceptions
of family functioning
Leanne K Simpson
3. Background
• A serving soldier’s family may be the most valuable resource in
terms of the well-being of the soldier: positive family
functioning boosts their morale, retention and work abilities
(Shinsek, 2003).
• Undergraduate final year research project
• First hand experience of military life and the deployment cycle.
4. Method
Participants
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) scale
A 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 the
additional 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 the
satisfaction 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)
5. Results
Significant deployment group differences on marital satisfaction,
(F(3,108)=9.69, p=<.001), with NDF having the highest marital satisfaction.
6. Results
Significant effect of deployment stage on the combined (balanced and
unbalanced) scales of cohesion and flexibility (F(3,108)=9.57, p=<.001).
7. Results
Significant 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 .
9. 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 .
10. 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
11. Acknowledgements
This project was Leanne Simpson’s undergraduate
dissertation, supervised by Dr Rachel Pye, at the
University of Winchester.
With thanks to the Second Royal Tank Regiment
and Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Evans, Lieutenant
Colonel Nicholas Cowey MBE and Captain David
Henretty.
