Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on army families: Household finances, familial experiences, and soldiers’ behavioral health

ABSTRACT

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted employment and finances, childcare, and behavioral health across the United States. The Behavioral Health Advisory Team assessed the pandemic’s impact on the behavioral health of U.S. Army soldiers and their families. Over 20,000 soldiers at three large installation groups headquartered in the northwestern continental U.S., Republic of Korea, and Germany participated in the cross-sectional survey. Multivariable logistic regression models indicated that key demographics (gender, rank), severity of household financial impact, changes in work situation due to childcare issues, and family members’ difficulty coping (both self and spouse/partner and/or child) were independently and consistently associated with greater odds of screening positive for probable clinical depression and generalized anxiety, respectively. These findings highlight how Army families were impacted similarly by the pandemic as their civilian counterparts. Army leadership may action these findings with targeted support for soldiers and their families to ensure they are utilizing supportive services available to them, and that military services continually evolve to meet soldier and family needs during times of crisis and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Army soldiers
• family
• COVID-19 pandemic
• behavioral health

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, U.S. Army Medical Department or the U.S. Government. The mention of any non-federal entity and/or its products is not to be construed or interpreted, in any manner, as federal endorsement of that non-federal entity or its products. The manuscript has been reviewed by the U.S. Army Public Health Center and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. There is no objection to its presentation and/or publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of these data, survey participants did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available.

Notes

1. Participants were also asked (Yes/No) whether: their child’s typical daycare/school closed or reduced hours, they had made alternate childcare arrangements, they were unable to make childcare arrangements, and they were working from home while caring for or homeschooling children. Frequency distributions for the five changes to childcare items were assessed, and participants most frequently reported that their work situation changed as a result of childcare issues. The most frequently selected item, “work situation changed as a result of childcare issues”, accounted for the most variance, and thus, was the only item used in the multivariable logistic regression models to avoid potential issues with multicollinearity.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded through the U.S. Army Public Health Center and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command.