Bridging the Distance: How to Support Military Families Through Communication
"Balancing Connection and Well-being During Deployment"
Deployment creates a unique dynamic for military personnel and their families, where maintaining connections is vital, yet complex. The mental health of deployed service members is significantly influenced by their contact with family and friends back home. Regular communication can boost morale and provide essential support.
However, this connection is a double-edged sword. While family support can buffer against mental health challenges, a lack of it can increase the risk of developing mental health problems, which in turn negatively impacts occupational performance. The availability and nature of communication can directly affect a service member's ability to cope and function effectively.
This article examines the intricate relationship between communication and well-being during deployment, drawing from research on the impact of family contact on mental health and occupational effectiveness. It provides actionable insights for military families and support networks, emphasizing the importance of accessible, affordable, and balanced communication strategies.
Communication and Family Well-Being
Communication is a central way military families maintain connection during separation, but deployment can also create emotional and practical strain. The effects may differ across families depending on separation length, family responsibilities, available support, and opportunities to communicate. Because circumstances vary, broad statistics should not be treated as a complete picture of every military family’s experience.
Existing Support Approaches
Established support approaches address parenting, relationship concerns, stress management, deployment adjustment, and grief or loss. The Department of Defense emphasizes ongoing outreach, communication, activities, and events throughout all phases of deployment to support prevention and early identification of challenges. Department of Defense guidance and deployment-support materials also frame deployment as a cycle that begins before departure, while one listed support program reports that eligible individuals can receive up to 12 sessions per issue per family member at no cost. These approaches may not fully resolve the wider and more complex parenting challenges associated with military lifestyle stressors.
An Evolving Understanding
Understanding of military-family communication has developed alongside recognition that deployment affects more than the service member alone. Earlier and continuing work has increasingly treated communication, parenting, relationships, and reintegration as connected parts of family well-being. The historical record is complex, so specific milestones cannot be established from the sources provided here.
Access is Key: Making Communication Accessible and Affordable
Service members and their families often have high expectations regarding the availability and reliability of communication channels. The reality, however, can be quite different, leading to frustration and distress when expectations are not met. This mismatch between expectation and reality is a key stressor for both service members and their families.
- Subsidize Communication: Provide affordable or free access to various communication media for service members.
- Manage Expectations: Educate service members and families about realistic communication possibilities during deployment.
- Provide Information: Keep families informed about troop locations and relevant news to reduce stress and unnecessary inquiries.
Current Research Priorities
Current research continues to examine how military families manage communication, changing responsibilities, parenting demands, and emotional strain across deployment. Reviews also consider interventions designed to support military families with children. The available source material does not provide enough detail to summarize specific new findings or quantitative results.
Limits of Communication Alone
Communication can support family well-being, but deployment also involves changing roles and leadership, physical separation, limited communication, and stress during deployment and reintegration. RAND reported that spouses who were satisfied with the quantity of communication during deployment had better family relationships when the service member returned, suggesting that communication quality or sufficiency matters. However, families with a deployment reported more child difficulties, specifically emotional, conduct, and peer problems, than families without a deployment; this difference applied to children younger than 11, not teenagers. These findings indicate that communication is important but may not eliminate broader deployment-related challenges.
Choosing Communication Methods
Families can compare communication methods according to their availability, reliability, and fit with the deployment situation. The HPRC advises families to weigh the pros and cons of different types of communication and develop a plan for staying connected during long separations. Official support resources also describe command communications and the Military Family Readiness System, a network offering assistance across the deployment cycle, including mobilization and reintegration. The best approach therefore depends on both the family’s communication needs and the resources available to them.
Finding the Right Balance: Navigating the Complexities of Communication
While increased communication access is generally positive, research suggests that it's essential to find a balance. Easy access can amplify stress when problems arise at home, highlighting a service member's limited ability to resolve those issues from afar. Conversely, withholding information can also create tension and frustration.
A Whole-Family Perspective
Supporting military families through communication requires attention to relationships, parenting, changing responsibilities, and the emotional effects of separation. Communication should be considered one part of a broader support system rather than a complete solution by itself. The available evidence supports approaches that recognize differences among families and provide help throughout the deployment cycle.
Building More Responsive Support
Future efforts may focus on making communication plans and family-support services more responsive to changing deployment conditions. Research could continue examining how communication frequency, quality, and timing relate to family and child outcomes. The sources provided do not establish specific future technologies, programs, or projections.
Beyond the Conversation
Military families may face emotional stress, logistical hurdles, and financial concerns during deployments, making communication only one part of the support challenge. Sources also describe deployment as affecting family dynamics, parenting, mental health, tradition, and resilience. These overlapping pressures support the need for careful planning and strong support systems rather than relying on informal communication alone.
Changing Roles and Relationships
Deployment can shift roles and responsibilities within a family and create emotional consequences for family members of the deployed service member. RAND’s Deployment Life Study found that couples, on average, became significantly less satisfied with their marriages across the deployment cycle and reported less psychological and physical aggression than before deployment. Research and reviews have therefore tested interventions for military families with children, while military community support and services may be especially valuable during deployments, separations, and relocations.
The key lies in open, honest communication about expectations, limitations, and the potential impact of sharing certain information. Service members need to feel supported in making informed decisions about what to share and when, without feeling pressured to overshare or protect their families from difficult realities.
Future research should focus on identifying the optimal level and type of communication, considering factors like family status, deployment context, and individual needs. By understanding these nuances, the military can develop targeted interventions and resources that promote healthy communication patterns and support the well-being of both service members and their families, ultimately enhancing their resilience throughout the deployment cycle.