Throughout the past ten years, relational communication within the military has been affected by war zone deployments, creating a necessity to understand how couples communicate within this context. This study investigated the relationships, differences and comparisons between relationship satisfaction, agreement and resilience in military couples during three stages of deployment (pre-deployment, deployment and post deployment), when at least one partner had been deployed into an active war zone. 144 surveys-questionnaires were completed by (a) members of the United States armed forces (n = 24) and (b) their relational partners (n = 120). Resilience, relationship satisfaction and agreement all fluctuated throughout the stages of deployment, but satisfaction never returned to pre-deployment levels. Relational partners were also more resilient and experienced greater relationship satisfaction than deployed soldiers.

1. Relationship Satisfaction and Resilience: Military Couples and Deployment
Joy Cox & Dr. Melanie Booth-Butterfield
Communication Studies- West Virginia University
This study investigated the relationships, differences and comparisons between relationship satisfaction, agreement and resilience in military
couples during pre-deployment, deployment and post deployment, when at least one partner had been deployed into an active war zone.
Why Should We Study This? What We Did What We Found
•To give greater insight into the struggles military couples Participants
face. •A total of 171 surveys were attempted but only 144 were
fully completed.
What is Resilience? •33 males
•111 females
Resilience is the ability to successfully adapt to or avoid a
pathological outcome that comes after a stressful or 16.7% of the participants reported being the deployed
potentially traumatic life event or circumstance. soldier, leaving 83.3% to be the romantic partner who •Resilience, relationship satisfaction and agreement all
remained on the home front. fluctuated throughout the stages of deployment.
Did You Know…
Procedures •Levels of agreement, satisfaction and resilience NEVER
•Surveys were conducted through a website link hosted achieved the original levels that couples assessed in the pre-
•There are over 12,000 personnel enlisted in the military in by surveymonkey.com deployment stage.
West Virginia.
• 1 scale was used each, to measure relationship •Those enlisted in active duty, particularly men, are shown to
•More than half of those enlisted in the military are married. satisfaction, agreement and resilience: have difficulty adjusting when it comes to resiliency.
• Relationship satisfaction is important to both maintaining •Relationship agreement was determined by the •Relationship satisfaction suffered the most between those
the relationship, and soldier re-enlistment. partner’s self assessment of cohesiveness shared in who had been in a relationship between 2 – 5 years and had
their relationship during pre, deployment and post experienced 2 deployments.
deployment.
What We Asked Conclusions
•Relationship satisfaction was determined by each
RQ1: Are military couples more resilient during the stages of partner’s self assessment of how satisfied they were
•Military couples who experience deployment live under
deployment versus times when there is no threat of with the relationship.
stress on a regular basis, always adapting and evolving.
departure?
•Couples’ level of resilience was determined each
•By studying the factors that impact relationship satisfaction
RQ2: Will one’s relationship satisfaction remain the same or partner’s self assessment of how well they were able
and resilience, preparation can be made to assist soldiers
fluctuate during the stages of deployment? to cope with hardships and changes during the stages
upon their return from war, and their families while they are
of deployment.
away..
If you have any questions or would like more information on this study, please
contact Joy Cox at jcox27@mix.wvu.edu