Everything Here is Fine: Protective Buffering by Military Spouses During a Deployment

Publication Date

9-2020

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Protective buffering, Romantic relationship, Military, Deployment, Communication

Abstract

To minimize potential distractions for deployed military service members (SMs), some nondeployed romantic partners have reported engaging in protective buffering, or intentionally withholding information or concerns to protect their deployed partner. This study assessed the associations of protective buffering and psychological distress and marital satisfaction for military couples during and after deployment. Additionally, the study explored whether protective buffering was related to SM reports of being distracted during deployment by family matters. A total of 54 couples provided data before, during, and after an Army deployment. In multilevel models, higher protective buffering by partners was associated with higher psychological distress and lower marital satisfaction for both SMs and partners during, but not after, deployment. Additionally, partners reported frequent use of protective buffering during deployment; however, protective buffering was not significantly correlated with family related distraction for SMs during deployment. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.

Copyright Date

6-28-2019

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by Family Process Institute. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Carter S. P., Renshaw K. D., Allen E. S., Markman H. J., & Stanley S. M. (2020). Everything here is fine: protective buffering by military spouses during a deployment. Family Process, 59(3), 1261–1274. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12457

Rights Holder

Family Process Institute

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

Language

English (eng)

Publication Title

Family Process

Volume

59(3)

First Page

1261

Last Page

1274

ISSN

1545-5300

PubMed ID

31254284

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