Military spouse well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Mindful of the unique challenges that military spouses face, including frequent moves, distance from family networks, long duty hours of the soldier, and multiple family separations due to training and deployments, the military has emphasized the enhancement of resilience through programs and support organizations and in empirical evaluations of resilience-related interventions. Though these programs offer many to foster resilience, little research has been conducted to identify the characteristics associated with resiliency among military spouses. Given the lack of research in this area and the continued need to study military spouses' resiliency, research aimed at identifying correlates of resilience among military spouses was needed to enhance understanding of their subjective well-being. Psychological resilience represents a process of adapting well in the face of adversity. Resilience is the ability to power through difficult time;however, it does not mean that a resilient individual does not feel stress as others do. The key difference is they manage their stress to keep it under control. Subjective well-being and resilience may counter stress related to a global pandemic. For this study, data was collected from an online survey completed by 597 military spouses of active-duty service members. Quantitative data included demographics and Likert-style items about perceived stress scale, military, and COVID-19. Qualitative data were collected from four open-ended question and analyzed thematically. Quantitative and qualitative findings were documented in the final analysis. A main finding was military spouses have higher-than-average levels of perceived stress. There were slightly higher average scores among the military services with Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard spouses. While Navy and Marine spouses were slightly below the high level of stress, they remained well above the average level of stress for a general population. No significant differences were found for race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Two primary themes evolved from the analysis of the open-ended question for contributors to stress employment and loneliness and separation. Additionally, findings of the open-ended questions were the top resources that respondents used during COVID-19 were family and friends. The top resources highlighted that would have been helpful or needed were financial assistance and none. For the military lifestyle, the top support or resources needed are employment, housing, and medical security. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)