Stressors, Stress Mediators, and Emotional Weil‐Being Among Spouses of Soldiers Deployed to the Persian Gulf During Operation Desert Shield/Storm

Abstract

The Family Factors Field Study of Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS) was designed to collect data on the impact of the Persian Gulf deployment on soldier/family well‐being, and the effectiveness of Army and community resources in assisting and supporting families of deployed soldiers. In October 1990, a task force was assembled, and multi‐agency research teams visited several Army installations. Informal individual and group interviews were conducted with spouses, unit family support leaders, unit rear detachment personnel, garrison leaders, and local Army program/service providers. The questions were aimed at identifying key stressors which spouses and children experienced in relation to the sudden deployment, as well a stress mediators such as social supports and personal coping skills. Anecdotal information collected during the site visits, combined with findings from previous research on Army families, was used to develop a questionnaire designed to quantify those variables which emerged as relevant to a study of stressors and stress mediators in the context of the ODS deployment.