Protective Buffering by Service Members During Military Deployments: Associations with Psychological Distress and Relationship Functioning
Publication Date
6-2020
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Protective buffering, Couples, Marriage, Deployment, Military
Abstract
To shield a romantic partner from potential distress due to stressors occurring during deployment, service members (SMs) may engage in protective buffering, or withholding information or concerns from a romantic partner. This study utilized data from 54 couples collected before, during, and after a military deployment to assess whether SMs engaged in protective buffering while deployed and the possible associations between buffering and psychological, relationship, and contextual factors. Only 2% of SMs indicated never engaging in protective buffering during a deployment. In bivariate analyses, only partners’ psychological distress prior to deployment was significantly associated (negatively) with protective buffering. In multilevel models with time nested within individuals, and individuals nested within couples, higher buffering was associated with less partner distress during deployment, but was also associated with higher SM distress both during and after deployment. In these multilevel models, protective buffering was not significantly associated with SM or partner marital satisfaction.
Copyright Date
1-7-2019
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
Family Process Institute
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
Language
English (eng)
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., Curby T. W., Allen E. S., Markman H. J., & Stanley S. M. (2020). Protective buffering by service members during military deployments: associations with psychological distress and relationship functioning. Family Process, 59(2), 525–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12426
Publication Title
Family Process
Volume
59(2)
First Page
525
Last Page
536
ISSN
1545-5300
PubMed ID
30615191
Recommended Citation
Carter S. P., Renshaw K. D., Curby T. W., Allen E. S., Markman H. J., & Stanley S. M. (2020). Protective buffering by service members during military deployments: associations with psychological distress and relationship functioning. Family Process, 59(2), 525–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12426