Psychosocial and Life Stress Characteristics of Navy Families: Family Environment Scale and Life Experiences Scale Findings

Abstract

This study examined the combined responses of husbands and wives within 785 Navy families on five subscales from the Moos and Moos (1981) Family Environment Scale (FES) and from the Life Experiences Scale (LES), a measure of life stress developed by Sarason, Johnson, and Siege1 (1978). Respondents were from the U.S. Navy Atlantic Submarine Fleet, Surface Fleet, Air Wing, and Shore Duty Commands. Major findings indicated that FES subscale means for Navy families compared favorably with national normative data reported by Moos and Moos (1981), and FES scores were not affected by the sailors' point in the deployment cycle or type of command assignment. In contrast, LES scores were significantly related to command assignment and point in the deployment cycle, with significantly lower levels of life stress reported for those sailors and wives assigned to shore duty. Finally, level of life stress was significantly related to family environment characteristics, with higher life stress families reporting lower levels on FES subscales of Cohesiveness, Expressiveness, and Organization, and higher levels on Family Conflict.