Why Does Military Combat Experience Adversely Affect Marital Relations?

Abstract

Using data on 2,101 Vietnam veterans, we investigate the ways in which combat decreases marital quality and stability. We test three models: (a) Factors that propel men into combat also make them poor marriage material; (b) combat causes problems such as post-traumatic stress symptoms or antisocial behavior that increase marital adversity; and (c) combat intensifies premilitary stress and antisocial behavior that then negatively affect marriages. All three models were supported. Combat crates stress and antisocial behavior, but only antisocial behavior has direct effects on marriage; all ether effects are indirect. Four generations of United States men have been exposed to military combat during this century. Typically each-war has been followed by an increase in the divorce rate (Pavalko & Elder, 1990; South, 1985). While this increase cannot be attributed solely to the behavior of military veterans, there is some indication that veterans contributed disproportionately to the immediate post-World War II rise in divorce rates when compared with nonveterans (Pavalko & Elder, 1990). Extant research indicates that life disruption (education, career, and marriage) is one factor that accounts for the increase in marital dissolution among veterans (Card, 1983; Pavalko & Elder, 1990) and that combat exposure is another factor (Kulka et al., 1990; Laufer & Gallops, 1985; Pavalko Elder, 1990; Stellman, Stellman, & Sommer, 1988). While the strains of long periods of separation (Rindfuss B Stephen, 1990) and economic stress caused by delays in education and career (Voydanoff, 1990) clearly affect marital stability, the relationship between combat exposure and marital dissolution is less clear. Questions regarding the latter relationship guide the investigation reported here. Rather than focus exclusively on divorce, we examine the relationship between combat experience and a wide range of indicators of marital quality including divorce, marital separation for reasons other than divorce, infidelity, and abuse. We employ the more encompassing term, marital adversity, to describe our dependent variable. Using a representative sample of more than 2,000 Vietnam veterans, we explore three possible models of the relationship between combat exposure and marital adversity. First, we consider a spurious relationship model. Individuals most likely to be exposed to battle also are more likely to be people who are poor marriage material. People who are assigned to combat by others or who volunteer for battle may be more likely to have psychological problems or to engage in antisocial acts before they ever get to battle. Troubled men might be more likely to experience combat for several reasons. First, if preservice emotional problems or antisocial behaviors are in any way associated with lower aptitude scores at entry into the military, then assignment to the less complex combat positions as compared to technical noncombat jobs is likely (Laurence & Ramsberger, 1983). Second, men with preservice emotional problems and/or early antisocial behaviors most likely do not have the skills necessary to manipulate the system to avoid combat once a combat assignment is made (Baskir & Strauss, 1978). Finally, at the battlefield level, these men might be viewed as less competent soldiers and thus might be more likely to be assigned to serve as bait in order to draw the enemy out of cover. These assignments would probably lead them to be exposed to more combat than the typical soldiers. (See Helmer, 1974, for a discussion of the frequent use of the cannon fodder strategy in Vietnam.) Men with a history of antisocial behavior might also be more likely to volunteer for combat experiences as a continuation of their earlier risk-taking behaviors. These same qualities that propel men toward battle also make them poor marriage partners (Booth & Edwards, 1992; Kitson & Sussman, 1982), lead them to select inadequate or inappropriate partners (e. …