Total Force Fitness: The Military Family Fitness Model

Abstract

The military lifestyle can create formidable challenges for military families. This article describes the Military Family Fitness Model (MFFM), a comprehensive model aimed at enhancing family fitness and resilience across the life span. This model is intended for use by Service members, their families, leaders, and health care providers but also has broader applications for all families. The MFFM has three core components: (1) family demands, (2) resources (including individual resources, family resources, and external resources), and (3) family outcomes (including related metrics). The MFFM proposes that resources from the individual, family, and external areas promote fitness, bolster resilience, and foster well-being for the family. The MFFM highlights each resource level for the purpose of improving family fitness and resilience over time. The MFFM both builds on existing family strengths and encourages the development of new family strengths through resource-acquiring behaviors. The purpose of this article is to (1) expand the military's Total Force Fitness (TFF) intent as it relates to families and (2) offer a family fitness model. This article will summarize relevant evidence, provide supportive theory, describe the model, and proffer metrics that support the dimensions of this model.

The Importance of Parents' Community Connections for Adolescent Well‐being: An Examination of Military Families

“…Furthermore, based on the larger collective of research focusing specifically on the benefits derived from father involvement, as well as the detrimental effects of their absence, there is reason to suspect that fathers' resilient coping also has ramifications for youth well‐being (Cabrera, Fitzgerald, Bradley, & Roggman, ; Jeynes, ). Taken together, these findings and existing theoretical evidence suggest that parental coping strategies may represent a pivotal parental characteristic to consider when seeking to gain a better understanding of youth well‐being (Bowles et al., ; Chandra, Martin, et al., ; Huebner et al., ).…”

“…These paths were of similar magnitude for mothers and fathers, and a supplementary analysis revealed that these paths were not significantly different (i.e., constraining these two paths did not alter the chi‐square statistic significantly), suggesting that community connections are equally valuable for mothers' and fathers' resilient coping abilities. In line with the ideas of others, it is likely that community connections facilitate the utilization of resources within the community in times of need, thereby resulting in more resilient coping (Bowles et al., ). Even without using community resources, community engagement and sense of community can foster the sense of a “safety net” if needed, thereby promoting confidence in one's ability to manage a difficult situation.…”

“…Bowles et al. () argued that parents in resilient families often demonstrate the ability to mobilize community resources and use coping strategies that allow for effective stress management while maintaining balance within the family. Engagement in one's community, combined with a strong sense of community, is linked with adult well‐being (Bruhn, ; O'Neal, Mancini et al., ;) and an increased ability of family members to cope with stressors and demonstrate resilience (Bowen et al., ).…”

“…Others have argued that parents who utilize resilient coping skills, including effective decision‐making, collaborative problem‐solving, and open emotional expression, are better able to identify problems and develop strategies for dealing with issues (Bowles et al., ) and have the tools to develop supportive relationships and collaborative parenting behaviors with their offspring (Easterbrooks et al., ). It has been hypothesized that these behaviors then translate into positive parenting , which includes support, nurturance, and a reliance on authoritative parenting practices, and are a crucial influence on child development (Bowles et al., ).…”

“…Others have argued that parents who utilize resilient coping skills, including effective decision‐making, collaborative problem‐solving, and open emotional expression, are better able to identify problems and develop strategies for dealing with issues (Bowles et al., ) and have the tools to develop supportive relationships and collaborative parenting behaviors with their offspring (Easterbrooks et al., ). It has been hypothesized that these behaviors then translate into positive parenting , which includes support, nurturance, and a reliance on authoritative parenting practices, and are a crucial influence on child development (Bowles et al., ). Furthermore, because resilience processes in family relationships rely on positive and effective communication patterns and strong emotional connections (Walsh, ), these processes have implications for family members' decision‐making and their “meaning making” in times of stress; as such, these processes can be viewed as a pivotal building block for developing healthy and hardy family functioning .…”