Date of Conferral

2019

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Anthony Perry

Abstract

Military families experience increased levels of stress during times of deployment. Previous research has examined the effect of deployment on female spouses but not on male spouses. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between military deployment and male and female spouses' anxiety, depression, and perceived stress. The theoretical framework used for this study was the contextual model of family stress and coping. The research questions focused on whether military deployment, gender, communication ability, and coping skills were related to spouses' depression, anxiety, and stress. Multiple regression was used to examine the relationships among the variables. A cross sectional design was used. Six male and 123 female military spouses participated in the study. Results demonstrated a positive relationship between emotion coping and depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and stress levels. Results showed that as military spouses' emotion coping increased, their levels of depression, anxiety, and stress increased. Communication ability had a positive relationship with anxiety symptoms. The results showed that as military spouses' communication ability increased, their anxiety symptoms increased. Task coping had a negative relationship with stress levels. The results showed that as military spouses' task coping increased, their levels of stress decreased. This research could assist professionals working with military spouses during a deployment to develop skills to assist with coping with depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and stress levels.

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