Informing efforts to prevent family maltreatment among airmen: A focus on personal resilience

Family maltreatment is a serious public health concern within civilian and military populations. The U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Program (FAP) delivers services to active-duty Air Force members and their families that aim to promote personal resilience and prevent maltreatment perpetration among those most at risk. Informed by family resilience and ecological perspectives, the purpose of this study is to empirically test a theory of change or conceptual model that could serve as an evidence-informed foundation for the selection of prevention interventions used by military and FAP service providers. A representative sample of 30,541 active-duty Air Force members from the 2011 Air Force Community Assessment Survey was analyzed, comprising participants who had at least one child and who were in a committed relationship. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized model. Neighborhood safety was analyzed as a moderating influence. With a focus on personal resilience as an asset-based outcome, results indicated that personal resilience among airmen was positively associated with features of individual fitness, informal support, adaptive family processes, and unit leader support. Results also indicated that neighborhood safety significantly moderated associations in the empirical model

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of a Measure of Comprehensive Airman Fitness

The U.S. Air Force has committed significant resources to implementing policies and programs consistent with the Department of Defense\u27s concept of total force fitness. A 12-item measure of Comprehensive Airman Fitness was proposed and empirically examined, using component measures of mental fitness, physical fitness, social fitness, and spiritual fitness from the Support and Resiliency Inventory. Results confirm that the components of airman fitness can be conceptualized as pieces of a total fitness construct and that the measure is invariant across subgroups. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, and an agenda for future research is presented

A Measure of Comprehensive Airman Fitness: Construct Validation and Invariance Across Air Force Service Components

This article addresses the construct validity of an online assessment measure intended to reflect the biopsychosocial and spiritual fitness of U.S. Air Force (AF) members, defined as Comprehensive Airman Fitness. The analysis presented examines the extent to which this measure and the associated validation model are invariant across three AF components: active duty personnel, members of the Air National Guard/AF Reserve, and AF civilian employees. Our results indicate that total fitness (i.e., second-order factor), its four subcomponents (i.e., first-order factors), and the resiliency construct associated with role performance are invariant across service components at the configural, metric, and scalar measurement levels. Further, the strong positive association between total fitness and resiliency is statistically indistinguishable across all AF components. Limitations and implications are discussed

A Measure of Comprehensive Airman Fitness: Construct Validation and Invariance Across Air Force Service Components

This article addresses the construct validity of an online assessment measure intended to reflect the biopsychosocial and spiritual fitness of U.S. Air Force (AF) members, defined as Comprehensive Airman Fitness. The analysis presented examines the extent to which this measure and the associated validation model are invariant across three AF components: active duty personnel, members of the Air National Guard/AF Reserve, and AF civilian employees. Our results indicate that total fitness (i.e., second-order factor), its four subcomponents (i.e., first-order factors), and the resiliency construct associated with role performance are invariant across service components at the configural, metric, and scalar measurement levels. Further, the strong positive association between total fitness and resiliency is statistically indistinguishable across all AF components. Limitations and implications are discussed

The Willingness of Military Members to Seek Help: The Role of Social Involvement and Social Responsibility

Anchored in the social organization theory of action and change, we use data from a large sample of active-duty Air Force members to examine the direct and indirect influence of social involvement and social responsibility on willingness to seek help in times of need via trust in formal systems and informal supports. Group comparisons are conducted between junior male, junior female, senior male, and senior female service members. The key mediational path in the model for all groups is the connection between social involvement and willingness to seek help via trust in formal systems. These results can inform both unit- and community-level interventions intended to increase the likelihood that active-duty AF members will seek help in times of need

The Willingness of Military Members to Seek Help: The Role of Social Involvement and Social Responsibility

Anchored in the social organization theory of action and change, we use data from a large sample of active-duty Air Force members to examine the direct and indirect influence of social involvement and social responsibility on willingness to seek help in times of need via trust in formal systems and informal supports. Group comparisons are conducted between junior male, junior female, senior male, and senior female service members. The key mediational path in the model for all groups is the connection between social involvement and willingness to seek help via trust in formal systems. These results can inform both unit- and community-level interventions intended to increase the likelihood that active-duty AF members will seek help in times of need

Sex-role preferences and marital quality in the military

The purpose of this study was to examine the sex-role preference patterns of military husbands and wives and to assess how these preferences are related to the quality of the couple's relationship. To accomplish this aim, a fourfold typology of sex-role preference patterns was constructed, and a scale was developed to assess the quality of the marital relationship. The marital quality scale developed was designed to be used as an overall index of marital quality, as well as to be divided into five subscales--affectional expression, marital leisure agreement, general marital consensus, marital satisfaction, and communication apprehension--to permit a more detailed analysis of the marital relationship. An eclectic version of social exchange theory was used as the overarching theoretical orientation in the study, and testable hypotheses were derived from the framework for empirical analysis. The data for the study were collected from personal interviews with a probability sample of 331 couples (662 persons) on nine United States and seven European bases. The sample was stratified to proportionately represent the families in different geographical locations and command responsibilities. Nearly 70 percent of the couples contacted agreed to participate