Understanding Special Operations Forces Spouses Challenges and Resilience: A Mixed-Method Study

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of online survey respondents.

Variable	n	%
Gender
Women	150	94.3
Men	9	5.7
Other and prefer not to disclose	–	–
Age
Less than 34	90	56.6
35-44	64	36.2
45 and more	12	6.9
Employment status
Paid, full-time	86	54.4
Paid, part-time	19	12.0
Active military personnel	15	9.5
Self-employed	12	7.6
Not paid, not looking for work	11	7.0
Not paid, looking for work	3	1.9
Other	12	7.6
Area of residence
Suburban	84	53.2
Rural	54	34.2
Urban	20	12.7
Relationship status with SOF partner
Legally married	117	74.1
Common law	32	20.3
Living together (not married or common law)	5	3.2
Separated or divorced	4	2.5
Children
Yes	120	75.5
No	39	24.5
SOF partner time away from home (past year)
None	2	1.3
Less than 1 month	16	10.1
1 to 2 months	19	11.9
3 to 5 months	67	42.1
6 to 7 months	33	20.8
8 months and more	18	11.3
I don’t know	4	2.5
SOF partner sustained injury or illness with substantive recovery
No	103	65.2
Yes	48	30.4
I don’t know	7	4.4
Mental Health
Excellent/very good/Good	115	75.7
Fair/Poor	37	24.3

Some percentages may not add-up to 100% due to rounding.

Table 2. Correlates of special operations forces spouses’ mental health (n = 142).

Variable	Crude Odds Ratio	95% CI	Adjusted Odds Ratio	95% CI
Age
Less than 34^a
35 to 44	1.05	0.48, 2.31
45 and more	0.73	0.26, 6.76
Gender
Men^a
Women	1.04	0.20, 5.38
Employment
Employed civilian^a
Service member	1.12	0.29, 4.33
Not currently employed	0.69	0.27, 1.76
SOF partner time away from home (past year)
2 months or less^a
3 to 5 months	1.60	0.63, 4.06
6 months or more	1.62	0.61, 4.32
Children
No children^a
Children over 3 years old	0.64	0.22, 1.87	1.92	0.52, 7.15
Children 0-3 years old	0.38†	0.14, 1.07	0.72	0.21, 2.45
Area of residence
Suburban or urban^a
Rural	0.32**	0.15, 0.70	0.29**	0.11, 0.77
SOF partner sustained a serious injury
No^a
Yes	0.60†	0.27, 1.33	0.69	0.26, 1.85
Social Support	4.45***	2.33, 8.52	4.22***	2.11, 8.46
Work-family conflict	0.53**	0.34, 0.83	0.58*	0.34, 0.99

^a reference category; † p ≤ 0.25 * p ≤ 0.05; ** p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001; Final multivariable model Nagelkerke R² = 0.36.