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Relationship Satisfaction, Conflict and Psychological Distress: The Impact of Combat Deployment to Afghanistan on the Romantic Partners of Australian Army Personnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Joanna Turner  and
Danuta Chessor
Joanna Turner
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Danuta Chessor*
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Danuta Chessor PhD, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith 2751 NSW, Australia. Email: d.chessor@uws.edu.au
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Abstract

Coping with psychological suffering after combat deployment has been identified across a diverse range of wars and countries as having the potential to negatively influence the long-term wellbeing of female partners of veterans. The aim of the study was to explore whether romantic partners of veterans (N = 97) suffered higher levels of psychological distress and destructive relationship conflict, lower relationship satisfaction and perceived social support when compared to female Australians in the civilian population (N = 87). Australian participants completed an anonymous online survey, and overall means were calculated for each group and compared using independent samples t tests. Results from the study indicated strong support for all research hypotheses in the expected directions. Research findings suggest that Australian females romantically involved with Afghanistan War veterans are more vulnerable to experiencing relationship dysfunction and are at an increased risk of impaired psychological health in the Australian population.

Keywords

veteranromantic partnerrelationshipdistressAfghanistanAustraliacombat
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 6 , 2015 , e2
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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