(PS11-B37) Deployment and Post-deployment Predictors of Dyadic Adjustment in Military Service Members in Long-term Relationships

Intimate relationships may serve as powerful sources of wellbeing, and partners as pillars of support, to military service members and Veterans (SMV). However, as partnered service members navigate operational deployments, a variety of factors may challenge their mental health and relationship adjustment. Homefront stress, defined as worry about one’s family, relationship, friends, and career back home, may be endemic to the deployment experience for service members in relationships, and may lead to negative mental health consequences due to stress sensitization (Post & Weiss, 1998). Indeed, service members who experienced increased homefront stress while deployed to the Iraq War reported greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity (Vasterling et al., 2010). PTSD symptoms, such as avoidance and negative alterations in cognition and mood, are known risk factors for impaired relationship functioning (Campbell & Renshaw, 2018), and thus service members who experience PTSD post-deployment may be vulnerable to experiencing relationship difficulties. Longitudinal research examining the prolonged impacts of deployment on romantic relationships is scarce. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine whether homefront stress during deployment predicted long-term relationship adjustment indirectly via greater PTSD immediately following deployment.

Participants included 84 male military SMV recruited at the military battalion level to participate in a larger longitudinal study. All participants were in long-term romantic relationships with the same partner from pre-deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan through the final timepoint of the study, about 6-8 years post-deployment. Homefront stress during deployment was measured within three months of homecoming using the Life and Family Concerns scale of the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI; King et al., 2006). PTSD was measured concurrently via self-report using the PTSD Checklist Civilian Version (PCL-C; Weathers et al., 1993). Relationship adjustment was measured 6-8 years post-deployment via self-report on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier 1976). In mediation analyses controlling for pre-deployment PTSD and military stress exposure during deployment, the indirect effect of deployment homefront stress on long-term dyadic adjustment via post-deployment PTSD was nonsignificant, b = 0.01, SE = 0.01 95% CI [<-0.01, 0.02]. However, direct effects revealed associations from greater deployment homefront stress to more severe post-deployment PTSD symptoms b = 0.04, SE = 0.01, 95% CI [0.01, 0.06], and to lower long-term dyadic adjustment b = -0.04, SE = 0.01, 95% CI [-0.07, -0.01]. Results suggest that, among SMV in long-term relationships, experiencing greater homefront stress during warzone deployment is linked to higher levels of post-deployment PTSD symptoms, as well as relationship impairment many years later. We provide evidence for homefront stress as a potential intervention target for preventing negative intimate relationship outcomes for SMV. Future research should investigate how pre-deployment dyadic adjustment may relate to deployment homefront stress and long-term dyadic adjustment.