In the Line of Fire: Family Management of Major Life Events during Wartime Deployment

• In Event: Understanding Marital Relationships in Context

Abstract

In this study, we examined how 41 Army wives, whose husbands deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan between 2003 and 2005, communicatively managed stress before, during, and after the deployment. Results indicated that the wives experienced a number of major life events during the deployment period and used seven different communicative strategies to cope with stress. There was little difference in the distribution of these strategies between high and low risk families.

Authors

• Katheryn Maguire, Wayne State Univ

• Erin Sahlstein, University of Nevada, Las Vegas