Today's Soldier: Assessing the Needs of Soldiers and Their Families

Abstract

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Today's Army Spouse Experiences In Garrison: Problem Solving, Resource Use, and Connections to the Army Community

“…As described by Trail, Sims, and Tankard (2019), and previously applied among soldiers in Sims, Trail, Chen, and Miller (2017), the TASS methodology incorporated a help-seeking and problemresolution approach to examine the most pressing challenges that Army spouses face, needs associated with those challenges, use of resources to receive help with those needs, and whether or not the needs were met by the resources used. This relatively unique and individually tailored format of the survey allows for in-depth exploration of experiences in problem resolution.…”

“…Furthermore, soldiers who live farther from post themselves report that they are less satisfied with the support they have received from Army resources, including support from their chain of command and other unit members, and they report less positive attitudes toward the Army and are less inclined to remain in the military (Sims, Trail, Chen, and Miller, 2017).…”

2017 U.S. Air Force Community Feedback Tool: Key Results Report for Air Force Headquarters

“…For the domain of health and resilience, it is possible that reported differences might be associated with factors related to status and access to resources available from the military, as found in prior research (Brown et al, 2015;Meadows et al, 2018;Sims et al, 2017;Sims et al, 2018). For example, working particularly long hours on a persistent basis may negatively affect physical or mental health, and opportunities for self-care or to seek health care may be limited.…”

“…Previous research has demonstrated that unmet needs can have a meaningful effect on attitudes (Sims et al, 2017). More generally, this item was considered key for the simple fact that it highlights potentially vulnerable populations-those with unresolved problems.…”

“…The 2017 Air Force Community Feedback Tool adopted a holistic survey framework developed to assess the needs of service members and their families (Miller et al, 2011;Sims et al, 2017). Subject-matter experts from across the Air Force helped ensure that the survey included appropriate content for active, guard and reserve airmen; their spouses; and Air Force civilian employees, as did reviews of the research literature and other recent surveys.…”