Date of Conferral

9-22-2026

Date of Award

September 2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Benita Stiles-Smith

Abstract

Protective buffering (PB) is used by civilian military spouses to withhold or deny stressful information or concerns to protect their spouse, others, or themselves, from upset or burden. This coping mechanism is commonly used during military deployments, yet is associated with negative physical, psychological, and social consequences. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of when and why civilian military spouses engage in PB during military deployments. Guided by the communication privacy management theory and the transactional stress and coping theory, the study examined the civilian spouses’ perceptions of their active-duty spouses’ stressors, and their own stressors and motivations, to explore the decision-making process of PB behavior. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six volunteers meeting inclusive criteria for civilian Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) military spouses stationed at a rural AFSOC base in the southwest region of the United States. Interviews were conducted via secure videoconferencing and analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis informed by reflexive interpretation to identify individual and shared meaning across participants’ deployment experiences. Analysis revealed specific stressors, motivations and perceptions, and strategic considerations associated with when, why, and how PB behavior occurred. Findings indicated that PB is a shared phenomenon with subjective coping strategies resulting in both positive and negative consequences. This study contributes to positive social change by informing of rural AFSOC challenges across compounded layers of normative, military, and AFSOC life stress, and adaptive PB practices to sustain well-being and readiness across the deployment experience.

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