Military and Relationships

The Best Years of Our Lives: Military Service and Family Relationships—A Life-Course Perspective

“…Marriage is more prevalent and occurs at earlier life stages for military members than for civilian members (Lundquist 2004;). In addition, half of service members have become parents, a transition which most likely took place during the first term of service (Burland and Lundquist 2009). This is because members are staying in the military longer than in the past and also because military members tend to get married and have children younger than in civilian society (Lundquist 2005).…”

“…For these reasons, life course outcomes of veteran spouses compared to those of veteran children would be an important point of contrast for future research. As an "unseen member of the family" (Wertsch 1991), military authority subjects military families to a high degree of scrutiny, including, for example, intervention in instances of adultery and the aggressive intervention of social services (Burland and Lundquist 2009).…”

“…Our review also uncovers many unanswered and unasked questions, particularly concerning non-traditional families. It is clear that the military offers substantial support to military families willing to adhere to the "traditional" married-with-children, breadwinner-homemaker model (Burland and Lundquist 2009), and as a result, this type of family is overrepresented in the military as compared to the civilian world. Even so, nontraditional families are present in the military, though they receive less support from the military as well as less scholarly attention.…”