Coping with Stressors on the Home Front

Abstract

This article seeks to correct the paucity of attention to the psychological impact on families of having a member engaged in war. The initial section focuses on the impact of the Persian Gulf War on military families, drawing upon family stress and coping and Miller's biological systems theory to help categorize and account for the stressors affecting these families at various strategic points in the Persian Gulf War: deployment, during the war, homecoming and reintegration, and long‐term reactions. The middle section focuses on the stress reactions and the factors that tend to mediate these reactions, such as effective methods of coping. Among the most significant yet widely overlooked reactions is secondary traumatization. The final section—based on both the extant research and the theoretical orientation articulated in section one—focuses on intervention. Among those interventions listed are programs that were successful during the Persian Gulf War. Implications for research and policy are noted.

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