Distraction During Deployment: Marital Relationship Associations with Spillover for Deployed Army Soldiers

Publication Date

3-1-2015

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology, Center for Marital and Family Studies

Keywords

Military, Couples, Communication, Spillover, Deployment

Abstract

Military spouses often have concerns regarding the impact of their communication on soldiers during deployment. However, literature is mixed regarding how communication between soldiers and spouses may impact soldiers’ self-reported work functioning during deployment, suggesting the need to evaluate moderating factors. In the current study, 3 relationship factors (marital satisfaction, conflictual communication, and proportion of conversation focused on problems) were tested as moderators of communication frequency and negative marriage-to-work spillover for soldiers. Whereas the 3 relationship factors were independently related to negative spillover, none significantly moderated the relationship between communication frequency and spillover. The overall pattern of results suggests that (a) lower marital satisfaction, a focus on problems during communication, and conflictual communication are each strongly linked to spillover for deployed soldiers; and (b) military couples may be self-restricting deployment communication frequency when experiencing less marital satisfaction and higher rates of negative communication. Implications for communication during deployment are discussed.

Copyright Date

3-1-2015

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Carter, S. P., Loew, B., Allen, E. S., Osborne, L., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2015). Distraction during deployment: Marital relationship associations with spillover for deployed army soldiers. Military Psychology, 27(2), 108-114. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000067

Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.

The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.

Rights Holder

American Psychological Association

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

Language

English (eng)

Publication Title

Military Psychology

Volume

27

Issue

2

First Page

108

Last Page

114

ISSN

1532-7876

PubMed ID

26236093

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