Research revealed that military families face diverse challenges associated with the military lifestyle. There are many factors that are uniquely experienced by military families and these includes recurring separations, repeated relocations, having to live overseas, expectations on how each family member must behave, and the anxiety associated with the threat of injury or death of the military member (Blank et al, 2012). It is important to understand the different challenges experienced by the military and their families in order to determine the coping strategies that can be used to deal with these challenges.
Studies showed that the most challenging aspect of being a member of a military family is how best to deal with deployment. This is so because the situation will have a negative impact on family relations due to lesser communication and interaction, and that the children will be left to the care of only one parent. One of the best coping strategy to overcome these challenges is constant communication, which is not made possible with new communication technology such as emailing and the use of social media.
It was found that distances between family members can have a detrimental impact on family relations. However, families that take considerable effort to communicate will in fact a form of attachment security. One study found that girls who were able to form a secure attachment are observed to experience more positive emotions (Abraham and Kerns, 2013). Accordingly, the constant communication between the deployed spouse and his family provides reassurance about the commitment of each with the other. It will also serve to ease the negative emotion associated with being deployed away from the family. Moreover, constant communication will also foster a strengthened and deeper relationship between the parent and his children.
References
Blank, C., Adams, L., Kittelson, B., Connors, R., Padden, D. (2012). Coping behaviors used by army wives during deployment separation and their perceived effectiveness. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Abraham, M., & Kerns, K. (2013). Positive and negative emotions and coping as mediators of mother-child attachment and peer relationships. Merril-Palmer Quaterly 59(4)
