Distraction During Deployment: Marital Relationship Associations With Spillover for Deployed Army Soldiers

Abstract

Military spouses often have concerns regarding the impact of their communication on soldiers during deployment. However, literature is mixed regarding how communication between soldiers and spouses may impact soldiers’ self-reported work functioning during deployment, suggesting the need to evaluate moderating factors. In the current study, 3 relationship factors (marital satisfaction, conflictual communication, and proportion of conversation focused on problems) were tested as moderators of communication frequency and negative marriage-to-work spillover for soldiers. Whereas the 3 relationship factors were independently related to negative spillover, none significantly moderated the relationship between communication frequency and spillover. The overall pattern of results suggests that (a) lower marital satisfaction, a focus on problems during communication, and conflictual communication are each strongly linked to spillover for deployed soldiers; and (b) military couples may be self-restricting deployment communication frequency when experiencing less marital satisfaction and higher rates of negative communication. Implications for communication during deployment are discussed.

• military
• couples
• communication
• spillover
• deployment

Notes

1 In order to assure that the relationships between negative spillover and relationship factors did not vary as a function of assigned condition (intervention versus control), negative spillover was regressed on each of the study variables (communication frequency, marital satisfaction, conflictual communication, proportion of conversation focused on problems) individually, with assigned condition included as a moderating variable. None of the interaction terms approached statistical significance. Thus, we combined participants from both conditions into the analyses.

2 Although the demographic variables of years married and rank were significantly related to negative spillover, we did not expect for these to change the relationship between frequency of communication and negative spillover. To confirm this, all analyses were rerun while controlling for years married and rank. Controlling for these factors did not change the patterns of significance. Thus, we report results without these control variables included.