Depressive Symptoms, Relational Turbulence, and the Reintegration Difficulty of Military Couples Following Wartime Deployment

Abstract

During reunion following wartime deployment, military couples are at risk for both depression and relationship distress (Bowling & Sherman, 2008). This article applies the relational turbulence model (Knobloch & Theiss, 2011a Knobloch, L. K. and Theiss, J. A. 2011a. Depressive symptoms and mechanisms of relational turbulence as predictors of relationship satisfaction among returning service members. Journal of Family Psychology, 25: 470–478. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Solomon & Theiss, 2011 Solomon, D. H. and Theiss, J. A. 2011. “Relational turbulence: What doesn't kill us makes us stronger”. In The dark side of close relationships II, Edited by: Cupach, W. R. and Spitzberg, B. H. 197–216. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) to understand the difficulty military couples may experience upon homecoming. One hundred and eighteen military couples completed an online questionnaire once per month for the first 3 months upon reunion following wartime deployment. Multilevel modeling results indicated that people's depressive symptoms (H1), relational uncertainty (H2), and interference from partners (H3) predicted their difficulty with reintegration. A few partner effects were apparent as well. These findings illuminate the dynamics of the reunion period, extend the relational turbulence model, and suggest guidelines for helping military couples preserve well-being during reintegration following wartime deployment.

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