Everything Here is Fine: Protective Buffering by Military Spouses During a Deployment

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Military and Veteran Health
• Family Studies

Background:

• Deployed military service members (SMs) may face distractions from family matters.
• Nondeployed partners sometimes use protective buffering, withholding information to shield SMs.
• The impact of protective buffering on military couples' well-being during and after deployment is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the associations between protective buffering and psychological distress.
• To examine the relationship between protective buffering and marital satisfaction for military couples.
• To explore if protective buffering relates to service member distraction by family matters.

Main Methods:

• Data collected from 54 military couples before, during, and after an Army deployment.
• Multilevel modeling used to analyze associations between protective buffering, distress, and satisfaction.
• Service member reports of distraction were also analyzed.

Main Results:

• Higher protective buffering was linked to increased psychological distress and decreased marital satisfaction for both partners during deployment.
• These negative associations were not significant after the deployment period.
• Partners frequently used protective buffering during deployment, but it did not significantly correlate with service member distraction.

Conclusions:

• Protective buffering may negatively impact the mental health and relationship satisfaction of military partners during deployment.
• The strategy of protective buffering does not appear to effectively reduce service member distraction.
• Findings highlight the importance of addressing the well-being of nondeployed partners and reconsidering protective buffering strategies.