The Deployment Life Study

The Deployment Life Study is examining how deployment affects the health and well-being of military families over the course of three years. The success of military operations depends not only on the preparation of service members, but also on the preparation of their families—a concept known as family readiness. This study, which is being conducted by the RAND Corporation, will help us learn more about the skills and tools that military families need in order to handle the stresses associated with deployments.

The study is unique because it follows multiple members of the military families—service member, spouse, and, if eligible, a child—at four month intervals over three years. By collecting data over time we learn more about the kinds of help families need throughout the deployment cycle, a first step in developing policies and programs designed to assist and strengthen these military families.

The Deployment Life Study is randomly selecting Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine families for participation in the study. Families will receive a letter in the mail from RAND inviting their participation along with instructions for how to begin the enrollment process. In each family, a service member, his or her spouse, and a child 11 years old or older (if there is one in the household) will each provide information independently. Data collection will take place at several points in time—before, during, and after deployment. We expect that most study participants will choose to complete the follow-up surveys online but we also have a team of professional interviewers available for those who prefer to complete the surveys by phone.

RAND will analyze information gathered from the survey to describe how deployments affect a range of family outcomes, and to identify characteristics of families who manage the challenges of deployments successfully as well as characteristics of families who find the experience more difficult.

Outcomes of particular interest include:

• emotional, behavioral, and physical health of family members,
• quality of marital and parental relationships,
• child outcomes (e.g., school performance, social development),
• military career outcomes (e.g., attitudes toward military service, retention intentions), and
• financial well-being.

This project is funded by the offices of the U.S. Army Surgeon General and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. The study is housed in the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research, a joint research initiative of RAND Health, the RAND Arroyo Center, and the RAND National Defense Research Institute.

The study is led by four RAND researchers: Terri Tanielian, Sarah Meadows, Benjamin Karney, and Anita Chandra.

For more information, please email deploymentlifeinfo@rand.org.