UNC News Service

CHAPEL HILL — Wives of active-duty soldiers are at risk for psychological problems such as depression, loneliness and burnout, a study from UNC has found.

But spouses are more likely to handle stress well if they are encouraged to build stronger relationships with their friends and communities, and can potentially lower their long-term medical costs if they receive military support services — including mental health care early, researchers found.

The study showed that the risks for psychological troubles are almost cut in half when spouses receive services such as relationship skills training.

“When the military services focus some of their resources and attention on getting their families ready for deployments, this clearly pays off in the readiness of their personnel for duty and can result in fewer emotional and family problems when they return home,” said UNC School of Social Work professor, Dennis Orthner. Orthner co-wrote the study with Roderick Rose, a research associate at the school’s Jordan Institute for Families.

The report is published in the October 2009 issue of Family Relations.

Orthner said the findings reinforced that ongoing efforts to strengthen military families work but more preventative programs are needed.

“I think the tendency in any large system is to mobilize a mental health system in response to a crisis and then allocate to that side pretty aggressively,” he said. “What our study points out is that there really is a need to shift some portion — if not a large portion — of those dollars to early identification, so that you’re beginning to identify the risks before they become a crisis.”

About a third of the spouses were “quite distressed,” and those that were tended to be younger, have younger children and have longer periods of separation. Orthner said that was not surprising, considering the makeup of the Army.

“It has a high concentration of young couples who are just starting out their adult lives, and they’re just starting to have kids. So it’s difficult when a young soldier goes away for 12 to 18 months and leaves a wife at home with a 2-year-old or a 4-year-old.”