Resources for Research

Deployment and Family Separation: An Annotated Bibliography

Released December 2002

Deployment, and the family separation that accompanies it, is a defining experience of military life. Researchers have studied family separation during deployment in relation to stress, well-being, child behavior problems, declines in marital satisfaction, and attitudes toward reenlistment. When families are unable to successfully adapt to separation, the performance of military members may be undermined. Research also shows that certain individual and environmental characteristics, such as marital stability prior to separation and use of social support, can moderate the relationship between deployment-related stress and well-being.

The Department of Defense invests considerable resources to prepare members and their families for the challenges and changes brought on by family separation. And although there is a vast research literature on family separation, there are few attempts to merge insights from military and civilian research. This annotated bibliography provides researchers and others with information about the methods and findings of existing studies on deployment and temporary family separation.

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