Psychological Adjustment of Navy Mothers Experiencing Deployment

Abstract

This research examined the psychological adjustment and correlates of psychological well-being of deployed Navy mothers compared with a nondeployed control group of Navy women during the same period. Participants were interviewed prior to a scheduled deployment and completed standardized questionnaires before and after the separation. Data were collected from the comparison group at similar intervals. Single deployed women reported the highest levels of depressive symptomatology. In addition, single women in the deployment condition and married women in the nondeploying comparison group reported the highest levels of anxiety. Several job-related and non-job-related variables predicted Navy mothers' self-reported psychological adjustment, which were their perceptions of social support from friends and spouses, length of military service, length of the most recent separation from families, and marital status.

Notes

1 We conducted a series of t tests and chi-square analyses to examine whether women who remained in the study differed from those who did not complete the final assessment. Women who did not complete the final assessment were significantly younger, less educated, and had a lower pay grade than women who completed both assessments. However, they did not differ in race-ethnicity, marital status, number of children, or age of the target child. Although Time 1 depressive symptomatology and stress scores did not differ for women who did and did not complete the study, women who did not complete both assessments reported significantly higher levels of anxiety at the initial assessment than participants who completed both the initial and final assessments.