An Exploration of Marital Health and Stress Among Military Couples

There are approximately 1.5 million active duty service members in today's military (Department of Defense [DoD], 2010) and approximately 726,000 (56.4%) of these individuals are married (DoD, 2010). Although the military offers benefits for married personnel, military couples also experience many hardships due to the demands from being in the armed forces (Laser & Stephens, 2011) and the stressors and challenges of military life may leave military members and their spouses more at risk for marital strain. The factors that garner the most attention for disruption and positive outcomes in relationships are the presence and process of deployment, changes in rank, and marital and physiological stress. The present study examined how factors , such as, deployment, rank, and length of time in the service, influence military personnel, their spouse, and their marital health (marital satisfaction, adjustment, and quality). This study took place within a family medicine practice on an Air Force base in the southeastern United States and data was collected from patients and their spouses using self-report measures and biomarkers (e.g., blood pressure and heart rate variability). Correlations were run to examine significant relationships between deployment, rank, length of time in the service, physiological stress and marital satisfaction, adjustment, and quality. Ultimately, the present study attempted to aid evidence based policy to support military couples since the deterioration of marital relationships has the ability to impact the performance of military personnel, which could ultimately have an impact on national security.  M.S

THE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL-SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF ACTIVE DUTY WOMEN: SERVICE MEMBERS IN NEED OF SERVICE

Given the growing number of women who serve in the military, it is critical that mental health clinicians, medical providers, researchers, and policy makers are aware of the unique biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health concerns of active duty women. A holistic approach to health and health care recognizes that the mind, body, and spirit are all relevant in the context of health and illness and thus essential to determining readiness and fit for duty. While the health of women veterans has received some attention in the research, a chasm exists in the literature on the biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) health of active duty women. This dissertation includes six chapters, comprising an introduction to the dissertation, a literature review on active duty women's biopsychosocial-spiritual health, two publishable manuscripts: (a) a systematic review of research published on the BPSS health of active duty women, and (b) an empirical research study on the BPSS health experiences of active duty women, and a discussion chapter that offers future clinical, research, and policy implication to better serve this population

THE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL-SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF ACTIVE DUTY WOMEN: SERVICE MEMBERS IN NEED OF SERVICE

Given the growing number of women who serve in the military, it is critical that mental health clinicians, medical providers, researchers, and policy makers are aware of the unique biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health concerns of active duty women. A holistic approach to health and health care recognizes that the mind, body, and spirit are all relevant in the context of health and illness and thus essential to determining readiness and fit for duty. While the health of women veterans has received some attention in the research, a chasm exists in the literature on the biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) health of active duty women. This dissertation includes six chapters, comprising an introduction to the dissertation, a literature review on active duty women's biopsychosocial-spiritual health, two publishable manuscripts: (a) a systematic review of research published on the BPSS health of active duty women, and (b) an empirical research study on the BPSS health experiences of active duty women, and a discussion chapter that offers future clinical, research, and policy implication to better serve this population

A Systematic Review of the Biopsychosocial–Spiritual Health of Active Duty Women

<p>Women make up approximately 15% of today’s active duty (AD) military. Not only are more women volunteering for military service now than ever before in America’s history, but due to recent policy changes, they are also allowed to apply for more jobs. Therefore, since the number of women in the military is continuing to rise and there are more job opportunities for women in the military, it is important to understand the unique health effects they experience that differ from civilian women and AD males. Although there is current literature on the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health of veteran women, few researchers have explored the biopsychosocial–spiritual effects of military service on AD women. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review was to explore the existing research on the biopsychosocial–spiritual health factors associated with military service in AD women. The results of this study indicated that there is more data on the biological health compared to the psychological and social health of AD women. There is even less research demonstrating the interconnectedness among biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health with AD women. Future research recommendations and policy implications are provided.</p