| Title | Publication | Date/Location |
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| Risk and Protective Factors Predictive of Marital Instability in U.S. Military Couples | Journal of Family Psychology | ePub; 2021 Dec |
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Pflieger JC, Richardson SM, Stander VA, Allen ES The objective of this study was to predict marital instability from a range of risk and protective factors in a large, representative cohort of military couples participating in the Millennium Cohort Family Study. Factors analyzed include mental health, family communication, military experiences, and education level. Findings from this study can be used to target specific couples risk factors for marital instability and to tailor programs to at-risk subgroups. |
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| Influence of work and life stressors on marital quality among dual and non-dual military couples | Journal of Family Issues | 2020 Nov;41(11):2045-2064 |
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Woodall KA, Richardson SM, Pflieger JC, Hawkins SA, Stander VA Maintaining a healthy marriage may be challenging for military couples as they attempt to balance the demands of work and family; for dual-military couples, this can be even more challenging. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, we examined whether military stress experiences negatively impact marital quality through the mediation of work-family conflict. Spouse gender and dual-military status were included as moderators. Results demonstrated that more military stress experiences was related to lower marital quality, which was mediated by work-family conflict. Additionally, female dual spouses reported lower marital quality than male dual spouses and civilian spouses. Findings from this study highlight the importance of providing support to military spouses for stressful military events and potentially tailoring support services for female dual spouses to improve marital quality. |
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| Mental health of children of deployed and non-deployed US military service members: The Millennium Cohort Family Study | Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics | 2018 Dec;39(9):683-692 |
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Fairbank JA, Briggs EC, Lee RC, Corry NH, Pflieger JC, Gerrity ET, Amaya-Jackson LM, Stander VA, Murphy RA Prior research has found that youth in military families were significantly more likely to report higher rates of major depression and use of illicit drugs in comparison to their non-military counterparts. The present study investigated the associations between service member deployment experiences and family demographic factors and children’s mental health and psychological functioning, utilizing data collected from 9,872 Service members/military spouses through both online and mail survey options. The results from the Family Study indicated that while most spouses did not report that their children had mental health, emotional, or behavioral difficulties regardless of parental deployment status, a significant minority of children whose parents had been combat deployed were more likely to have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and depression by a doctor or health professional in comparison to youth without a deployed parent. Children with a non-combat deployed service member parent were also more likely to have been assigned a diagnosis of depression in comparison to youth without a deployed parent. |
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| Patterns of strengths in U.S. military couples | Journal of Child and Family Studies | 2019 Sep;29:1249–1263 |
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Pflieger JC, Porter B, Carballo CE, Stander VA, Corry NH This study examined patterns of strengths among military couples in the Millennium Cohort Family Study (n = 9,642), including beliefs (self-mastery, positive outlook, spirituality), social support, and family communication. Results supported five patterns of strengths, with 58.4% of couples exhibiting a pattern of high strengths; 33.6% of couples exhibiting two patterns in which one member of the couple was higher on strengths than the other member; 5.1% of couples exhibiting a pattern of low strengths; and 2.9% of couples exhibiting a pattern of moderately high beliefs and social support, yet very low family communication. Higher spouse education level and service member officer rank consistently distinguished patterns of high strengths, whereas couples with lower mental health, marital quality, and military satisfaction were more likely to exhibit patterns of low strengths. These results provide a snapshot of couples early in the military career cycle and highlight the need to adopt a family-centered perspective in military resilience programs and policies. |
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| Military life stressors, family communication and satisfaction: Associations with children’s psychosocial outcomes | Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma | 2019 May;13(1):75-87 |
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Briggs EC, Fairbank JA, Tunno AM, Lee RC, Corry NH, Pflieger JC, Stander VA, Murphy RA The purpose of this study was to examine facets of military life and family factors that may impact child psychosocial and mental health functioning. Using baseline data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, this study examined family demographics and composition (age, number of children), military life stressors (injury, family, and deployment stressors), family communication and satisfaction, parental social functioning, and child mental health and behavioral functioning. Injury- and family-related military stressors were significant indicators of heightened risk for child mental health conditions, whereas greater levels of parental social functioning and family satisfaction were associated with lower risk of child mental health conditions. Differential associations were found in child functioning when military-related variables (e.g., service component), sociodemographic, and family composition factors (number and age of the children in the home) were examined. These findings underscore the importance of examining the “whole child” within the broader ecological and military family context to understand factors associated with children’s mental and behavioral health. The results have considerable implications for the development of policies to support children and families encountering multiple stressors related to a parent’s military service. |
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| Comparison of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Instruments from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition vs Fifth Edition in a Large Cohort of US Military Service Members and Veterans | JAMA Network Open | 2021 April; 4(4): e218072 |
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LeardMann CA, McMaster HS, Warner S, Esquivel AP, Porter B, Powell TM, Tu XM, Lee WW, Rull RP, Hoge CW To assist in the longitudinal assessment of PTSD spanning the transition between the DSM-IV and DSM-V, we compared the PTSD Checklist-Civilian version (PCL-C) with the PCL for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in a sample of 1,921 participants from the Millennium Cohort Study. There was substantial to excellent agreement when comparing individual items, frequency of probably PTSD, and sum scores; and nearly identical associations with comorbid conditions. Our results provide support that PTSD can be successfully assessed and compared over time with either PCL instrument in veteran and military populations. |
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| The Millennium Cohort Family Study: A prospective evaluation of the health and well-being of military service members and their families | International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research | 2014 Sep;23(3):320-30 |
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Crum-Cianflone NF, Fairbank JA, Marmar CR, Schlenger W The Millennium Cohort Family Study is the largest prospective, epidemiologic study of military families in US history, and includes dyads of service members and their spouses. This paper provides a comprehensive description of this landmark study including details of the research objectives, study methodology, survey instrument, ancillary data sets, and plans for dissemination of research findings. The Family Study offers a unique opportunity to define the challenges that military families experience and advance the understanding of protective factors that will benefit military families today and into the future. |
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| Guidance for use of weights: An analysis of different types of weights and their implications when using SAS PROCs. | General Psychiatry | 2019 Feb 20;32(1):e100038 |
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Richardson, S., Lin, T., Li, Y., Niu, X., Xu, M., Stander, V., & Tu, X. SAS and other popular statistical packages provide support for survey data with sampling weights. For example, PROC MEANS and PROC LOGISTIC in SAS have their counterparts PROC SURVEYMEANS and PROC SURVEYLOGISTIC to facilitate analysis of data from complex survey studies. On the other hand, PROC MEANS and many other classic SAS procedures also provide an option for including weights and yield identical point estimates, but different standard errors (SEs), as their corresponding survey procedures. This paper takes an in-depth look at different types of weights and provides guidance on use of different SAS procedures. |
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| Gender differences in marital and military predictors of service member career satisfaction. | Family Relations | 2022 May; 1-23 |
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Street, T., Lewin, A., Woodall, K., Cruz-Cano, R., Thoma, M., & Stander, V. A. U.S. servicewomen may face unique military experiences unlike those of servicemen, and stressors can affect their satisfaction with the military. Understanding factors influencing satisfaction among the increasing number of U.S. servicewomen in the U.S. military is important for retention. This study increases our understanding of the influence military and family stressors have on service members' satisfaction with the military. It also reveals gender differences in military satisfaction and recommends strategies to address the needs of diverse military families. |
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| Influence of family factors on service members' decisions to leave the military. | Family Relations | 2022 August; 1-20 |
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Woodall, K., Esquivel, A., Powell, T., Riviere, L., Amoroso, P., & Stander, V. A. Service member retention is a crucial aspect in maintaining and advancing the U.S. military and its mission. To increase retention, it is important to understand why active duty personnel voluntarily leave while they are still highly qualified. For married service members, spouses likely influence the decision to stay or leave military service. The current study used data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study for 4,539 dyads comprising service members and their spouses to investigate family predictors of voluntary military separation. |
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