The Resilient Spouse: Understanding Factors Associated With Dispositional Resilience Among Military Spouses

Abstract

Spouses of soldiers face several unique challenges due to the demands of being in the military, such as frequent moves, and multiple family separations due to trainings and deployments. Although the military has several programs targeted to enhance spouse resilience, no research has examined the characteristics associated with dispositional (trait) resilience in military spouses or the extent to which trait resilience predicts health outcomes. Anonymous, cross-sectional survey data were collected from a sample of military spouses (n = 333) as part of the Land Combat Study. Survey items asked about dispositional resilience, mental health and well-being, as well as other psychosocial and demographic factors potentially associated with resilience. Characteristics associated with higher resilience included having more children, being a nonminority, social support, less work–family conflict, and better soldier mental health. Trait resilience also predicted several health outcomes including general psychological distress, relationship functioning, sleep quality, and overall health. Notably, the number of soldier deployments was not associated with resilience. Findings suggest these factors are important to the resilience of military spouses and can be used direct future resilience training efforts towards factors that most affect resilience among the population.