Extended and repeated deployments can cause significant stress to military families and may result in lower levels of reenlistment. RAND research has explored the need for military-sponsored child care and the role of military spouses, and continues to provide guidance to policymakers on how to attract and retain personnel with essential skills while also supporting military families.
The Army wants to develop a research agenda that defines the quality-of-life needs of soldiers and families, helps gauge the success of programs, improves coordination of research efforts, and determines how best to allocate resources.
Spouses, family members, and others who provide informal care to U.S. military members after they return home from conflict often toil long hours with little support, putting them at risk for physical, emotional, and financial harm.
This report explores how neighborhood theory and social indicators research shed light on quality of life in and around military bases, gaps in the methodology, and how a more in-depth analysis of military installations could be conducted.
Examines features of the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard's Employer Partnership Program, which seeks to strengthen relationships with reservists and their civilian employers.
The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) recently adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This paper summarizes work by researchers at the RAND Corporation and others that can guide DoDEA in strategic implementation of the CCSS.
Policymakers need to understand whether military spouses succeed at finding jobs and how veterans fare economically after they leave the military. But these groups differ from the civilian population in important ways, making comparisons difficult.
Military family support programs have proliferated, but there has been little evaluation of whether the programs are meeting their key objectives. An examination of the curriculum, themes, and outcomes of Operation Purple found some positive effects from participation and helps lay the groundwork for future studies.
Over the first four years following the death of a service member, recurring benefits offset more than two-thirds of the losses in estimated household earnings, on average. When combined with the lump-sum benefits the family receives, the benefits are likely sufficient to fully replace the lost earnings for several decades.
Presents the results of an assessment of the Real Warriors Campaign, a multimedia program designed to promote resilience, facilitate recovery, and support the reintegration of returning servicemembers, veterans, and their families.
This briefing identifies policy questions related to compensating service members and their survivors for fatality risk. It compares combat fatality patterns with fatalities occurring in other contexts and discusses current compensation programs.
A survey tool based on a new methodological framework can be used by the Department of Defense and local military commanders to gauge the problems and problem-related needs of service members and their families, how well those needs are being met, and the barriers and bridges to accessing services.
Testimony presented before the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee provides an overview of RAND's extensive research on how deployment affects service members and their families. Issues addressed include combat-related stress, psychological injuries, willingness to reenlist, and the impact of parental deployment on children.
Approximately two million individuals serving in America's all-volunteer force have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. An ongoing research program investigates the effects of deployment on those troops and their families.
Army children whose parents have deployed 19 months or more since 2001 score lower on standardized tests than other Army children whose parents have deployed for shorter periods of time.
Air Force families confront issues related to children, finances, employment, and the effects of moves and deployments but, by and large, remain satisfied with Air Force life.
U.S. military officials should improve efforts to identify those at risk and improve both the quality and access to behavioral health treatment in response to a sharp rise in suicide among members of the nation's armed forces.
Children and spouses of military members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan report facing challenges as family relationships change and they assume more responsibility for household duties during deployment.
This annual report describes selected RAND Project AIR FORCE research during 2010 in the areas of strategy and doctrine; force modernization and employment; manpower, personnel, and training; and resource management.
Messages from senior Air Force leaders to Airmen need to reinforce stated cultural goals and generally do so. Greater emphasis and clarity are needed in some areas, and some dissemination challenges exist.
Military wives have a much greater tendency than similar civilian wives to be underemployed, although there does not seem to be a strong link between wives' labor force position and satisfaction with their life situation.
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