• Nida H Corry, Christianna S Williams, Sharmini Radakrishnan, Hope S McMaster, Alicia C Sparks, Ernestine Briggs-King, Samantha S Karon, and Valerie A Stander.
• Division of Health and Environment, Abt Associates, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.
• Mil Med. 2021 Jan 25; 186 (Suppl 1): 214-221.

IntroductionMilitary spouses play a critical role in supporting military service members, and thus, their experiences may have a significant impact on the well-being, readiness, and resilience of the U.S. Armed Forces. Research suggests that military spouses experience unique stressors as a result of military life, but few studies have assessed demographic factors associated with their experiences of military life and perceived support.Materials And MethodsUsing data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, a nationwide survey of 9,872 married spouses of service members with 2 to 5 years of military service, this study examined differences in experiences of military life and perceived support across multiple understudied subgroups of military spouses. Key outcomes included military-related stressors (e.g., deployment-related experiences), perceived social support, and perceived military efforts to provide support.ResultsMilitary life stress and perceived support differed across military spouse, service member, and family characteristics. Results indicated that spouses who are older than age 35 or are married to enlisted service members in the Army, Navy, or Marines are more likely to experience heightened military stress or less perceived social support. Dual-military couples reported experiencing less stress associated with military life and perceiving more social support and support from the military, compared with spouses who have never served in the military.ConclusionThese findings may help guide effective channeling of resources and outreach to potentially vulnerable military families.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2021. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

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