Self-care among military spouses and partners: Developing the Military and Veteran Spouse Self-Care Inventory...

The need for a culturally appropriate, practical measure of self-care was identified during a peer support program evaluation conducted by the Institute of Military and Veteran Family Wellness at the University of Texas at Austin. The authors aimed to develop a concise version of the military-adapted 69-item self-care inventory (SCI) for use with military and Veteran spouses and partners.

Military and Veteran spouses and partners completed the military-adapted SCI (N = 227). The data were then subjected to confirmatory factor analysis to reconfirm the Physical Self-Care, Psychological Self-Care, Emotional Self-Care, Spiritual Self-Care, and Professional Self-Care sub-scales. The resulting model was examined for criterion, discriminant, and convergent validity. Associations between the Military and Veteran Spouse Self-Care Inventory (MVSSCI) and generalized anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, perceived quality of life, and perceived social support were explored.

The 15-item MVSSCI had a median score of 43 and a range of 16-60. Cronbach's α was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.89-0.92). Criterion validity with the military-adapted SCI was r = 0.95. Discriminant validity was demonstrated by relatively weak correlations with depression, anxiety, and social support constructs (rs = -0.34 to 0.33), and convergent validity was indicated by strong correlations with perceived quality of life (r = 0.60).

The MVSSCI should be considered a reliable and valid measure of self-care practices across several life domains among military and Veteran spouses and partners. Limitations include that only one gender participated in this pilot study, and respondent fatigue led to missing data.