The Role of Natural Support Systems in the Post‐deployment Adjustment of Active Duty Military Personnel

Abstract

This study examined the relations among three different types of naturally occurring social support (from romantic partners, friends and neighbors, and unit leaders) and three indices of service member well-being (self reports of depressive symptoms, satisfaction with military life, and perceptions of unit readiness) for service members who did and did not report negative experiences associated with military deployment. Data were drawn from the 2011 Community Assessment completed anonymously by more than 63,000 USAF personnel. Regression analyses revealed that higher levels of social support was associated with better outcomes regardless of negative deployment experiences. Evidence of moderation was also noted, with all forms of social support moderating the impact of negative deployment experiences on depressive symptoms and support from unit leaders moderating the impact of negative deployment experience on satisfaction with military life. No moderation was found for perceptions of unit readiness. Subgroup analyses revealed slightly different patterns for male and female service members, with support providing fewer moderation effects for women. These findings may have value for military leaders and mental health professionals working to harness the power of naturally occurring relationships to maximize the positive adjustment of service members and their families. Implications for practices related to re-integration of post-deployment military personnel are discussed.

Contextualizing the Psychosocial Well‐being of Military Members and Their Partners: The Importance of Community and Relationship Provisions

“…Findings have also consistently indicated the importance of military‐specific community, with informal community support and sense of community having a sizeable impact on family adaptation (Bowen, Mancini, Martin, Ware & Nelson, ), which, in turn, is relevant for the well‐being of individual family members, including AD, civilian, and adolescent offspring (Oshri et al., ). Welsh, Olson, Perkins, Travis, and Ormsby () demonstrate the power of community connections with their finding that regardless of negative deployment experiences, the post‐deployment of AD military personnel is positively affected by natural social support systems.…”

The Willingness of Military Members to Seek Help: The Role of Social Involvement and Social Responsibility

“…Fourth, we did not have an explicit measure of stigma in our models-a potentially relevant construct based on previous research and theory. In the context of recent research by Welsh et al (2015) that reported social support as a buffer of negative deployment experiences on depressive symptoms among a large sample of active-duty Air Force members, we encourage researchers to incorporate perceived or experienced stigma as a potential moderator in future research that examines the role of social involvement and social responsibility on the willingness of military members to seek help.…”

“…Pay grade and gender are often used in military studies, both singly and in combination, to examine the potential for group differences in the pattern of results (Bowen et al, 2003;Spera, Matto & Travis, 2015;Welsh, Olson, Perkins & Travis, 2015). Compared to their more senior counterparts (both senior enlisted and officers), junior enlisted members (E1 through E4) have less influence over the nature of their assignments and job responsibilities and less supervisory responsibilities for others (Hamaoka et al, 2014).…”

Resiliency factors that protect against post-deployment drug use among male US Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers

“…Other evidence suggest that interpersonal relationships are frequently a source of stress among service members (Laffaye et al, 2008;Yan et al, 2013). However, research also shows that a lack of social support from friends and family is associated with self-harm among service members (Hines et al, 2013), while greater social support has been shown to protect against depressive symptoms, regardless of deployment experiences (Welsh et al, 2015). Additionally, social support has been shown to buffer the relationship between stress and alcohol problems among service members (Kelley et al, 2017).…”