While the conventional belief is that military marriages often end in divorce because of the increased emotional stress that results from repeated deployments, etc., new research actually shows that the rate of divorce among military families hasn’t risen in more than a decade.
In fact, according to the year-long Rand Corp. study, many military marriages were actually made stronger as a result of war zone deployments, which provides families with extra income (combat pay and tax breaks) and gives the deployed spouse a sense of job satisfaction.
Study Results
Researchers found that in 1996, nearly one-and-a-half percent of marriages with male military officers and three percent with recruited personnel resulted in divorce. By 2000, those figures actually went down to 1.2 percent and 2.7 percent and then slightly rose in 2005 to 1.5 percent and 2.8 percent. However, study authors note that in the last 10 years, military divorce rates in the U.S. has not increased, despite what many people think.
Some experts in military marriages believe these numbers reflect the rising success of family support programs for military families. But critics say additional research needs to be conducted for a more comprehensive review.
“It’s a double-edged thing: Each deployment piles stress upon stress. But at the same time you’re learning coping skills,” said Kristin Henderson, an author and wife of a Navy chaplain.
Disproving Common Beliefs
According to the study, there was no significant difference in the divorce rates between Marine Corps and Army troops who have and haven’t faced deployment. But there is some data indicating that longer deployment periods actually decreased the rate of divorce compared to troops that haven’t been deployed.
“The conventional wisdom about how deployments affect military marriages turns out to be wrong,” researchers concluded. “Although some may find these results counterintuitive, in fact, they are consistent with other recent findings.”
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