Literature Review

de Burgh, H. T., White, C. J., Fear, N. T., & Iversen, A. C. (2011). The impact of

deployment to iraq or afghanistan on partners and wives of military personnel. International Review of Psychiatry, 23(2), 192-200. doi:10.3109/09540261.2011.560144 This article looks at the impact that war has on spouses or significant others of deployed military personnel. There is little that is talked about the psychological impact these wives and partners face as their loved one goes off to war and they are left to take care of everything until they hopefully make it back. There are factors that can make things harder such as PTSD or even a longer than usual deployment. There needs to be more research done in this area to help the whole family rather than just parts of it.

Richard, L. S., & Huffman, A. H. (2002). The impact of commuter war on military

personnel. Military Medicine, 167(7), 602.

This article surveyed air force personnel to see if a different way of fighting called the “commuter war” was able to make a difference in how stress was handled and if wellbeing and happiness would be better. Turns out it did not matter because the numbers only showed negative results. War is not good for anyone mentally no matter how it is labeled or how it is fought.

Sundin, J., Fear, N. T., Hull, L., Jones, N., Dandeker, C., Hotopf, M.. . Rona, R. J.

(2010). Rewarding and unrewarding aspects of deployment to iraq and its association with psychological health in UK military personnel. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 83(6), 653-663. doi:10.1007/s00420-009-0504-8

This study surveyed military personnel to see how they responded to their duties in the military. The authors found that the way in which the person thought about their duties, good or bad, made a difference in their mental health after. While the deployments were difficult it came down to personal mental war that could go in multiple directions.

Sutker, P. B., Corrigan, S. A., Sundgaard-Riise, K., Uddo, M., & Allain, A. N. (2002).

Exposure to war trauma, war-related PTSD, and psychological impact of subsequent hurricane. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24(1), 25-37. doi:10.1023/A:1014049123935 This study looked at military personnel that have been on war duty and how they responded when a natural disaster struck, a hurricane. What was found is that the participants that have been in a war zone before responded much more intensely than the other military personnel that have not been in a war zone. The sum of the findings is that negative outcomes are going to occur when other traumatic stressors occur.

Turner, J., & Chessor, D. (2015). Relationship satisfaction, conflict and psychological

distress: The impact of combat deployment to afghanistan on the romantic partners of australian army personnel. Journal of Relationships Research, 6 doi:10.1017/jrr.2014.13

This study looks at the impact that war has on the spouse of the war veteran. What was found is that the spouses reported having higher levels of dysfunction in their relationship and lower levels of satisfaction. This is important to study because after the veteran has served their time they come home and their spouse is left to pick up the pieces.

Waliski, A., Kirchner, J. E., Shue, V. M., & Bokony, P. A. (2012). Psychological traumas

of war: Training school counselors as Home‐Front responders. The Journal of Rural Health, 28(4), 348-355. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0361.2012.00404.x

This talks about training others to help the families of military personnel. There are many stressors in life and adding war and deployment to that and then leaving one parent at home to struggle creates many more problems. By training counselors there is a chance to know signs and to be able to help appropriately. It also gives a listening ear to children that are suffering but may not know how to talk about it.