Happy Home, Happy Soldier

Mixing career and family calls for a careful balancing act, and the military experience is no different. University of Victoria master’s candidate Meghan Robertson, under the supervision of UVic counselling psychology professor Dr. Tim Black, conducted exploratory research on the work-family balance in the lives of five local married ex-soldiers, most of whom were sent away from home more than 100 times during active service.
        “Although this is a relatively small sample size, the experiences of the veterans served to emphasize the importance of having solid and stable partnerships with their spouses in which they both shared a common understanding of what negotiating military and family life is like,” says Robertson. “My area of study was in counselling, so I was especially struck by how consistently the veterans emphasized the spousal relationship and how much the military support strategies could benefit from directing resources specifically to couples therapy.”
        Robertson interviewed five male veterans whose average absence from home on deployment was one to six months including UN peacekeeping missions in Europe and the Golan Heights. At time of interview, the ages of the veterans ranged from 49 to 73 years old with an average service period of 20 to 35 years.
 

-- 30 --