Psychological and relational health profiles of soldiers in committed romantic relationships

The present study explored the heterogeneity of military service members' psychological and relational functioning using a sample of 7,866 soldiers in committed romantic relationships from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members (Army STARRS). A latent profile analysis was conducted to identify and predict unique clusters of soldiers' relative psychological (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety symptom severity) and relational (i.e., relationship happiness, how often their relationship was going well, how often they confided in their partner, how often they considered or discussed ending their relationship, relational insecurity, and relational turbulence) functioning. Results revealed 4 distinct classes of comparative psychological and relational health: hardy soldiers and healthy relaters (70.2%), stressed soldiers but healthy relaters (13.1%), hardy soldiers but strained relaters (12.7%), and stressed soldiers and strained relaters (4.0%). Class descriptions, as well as implications for theory and clinical practice are reviewed. Notably, 7 out of 10 soldiers in this nationally representative sample reported little to no psychological or relational distress. These findings invite more adaptive narratives of service member resilience and a more nuanced conceptualization of gradations in psychological and relational functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).