EFFECTS OF A MILITARY OVERSEAS PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT ON MARITAL QUALITY, SATISFACTION, AND STABILITY

Changes in self-reported soldier marital satisfaction and marital quality were assessed at three points in time, 1994-1997, before, during, and after a 1995 peacekeeping deployment of approximately 100 married soldiers to the Sinai peninsula. Analysis shows a moderate decline in marital satisfaction during the deployment (effect size of 0.27-0.29) but no overall change in the long term. Marital quality did not change significantly over time. Marital stability rates were especially low for soldiers who reported that their marriage was in trouble prior to the deployment. It appears that stable marriages can survive 6-mo. deployments without long-term decrements in satisfaction or quality. How many couples will continue to accept voluntarily a military lifestyle that requires frequent sacrifices of marital satisfaction as may occur during separations and deployments remains an open question, even though intentions for retention did not appear correlated with marital satisfaction or changes in marital satisfaction over the deployment in this study.