A majority of Army spouses reported stress, overload or fatigue in the past year in a Rand Corp. study evaluating Army spouse challenges, their attitudes toward the Army and how available resources are used, Army Times reported Monday.
“When asked to indicate the issues they faced in the past year, Army spouses’ most frequently chosen issues were their own feelings of being stressed, overwhelmed, or tired, followed by their soldier’s feelings of being stressed, overwhelmed, or tired,” the report said.
Based on responses from more than 8,500 spouses, the survey identified nine Army spouse problem areas including military practices and culture; work-life balance; household management; financial or legal problems; health care system problems; relationship problems; child well-being; their own well-being and their soldier’s well-being, according to the report.
In those areas, researchers identified 96 targeted issues to present and respondents could select between 8 to 14 specific issues experienced in the past year, the report said.
Nearly 56% of spouses reported stress, feeling overwhelmed or tired in the personal well-being area, though it dropped to 49.5% when considering their soldier’s stress, according to the report.
Respondents also revealed problem areas impacting them the most. If specific issues covered multiple problem areas they were also requested to identify their top two areas.
Work life balance and military practices and culture were identified the most, according to the report.
Almost 90% of spouses reporting issues said they did use available resources and most were satisfied, but 32% reported ongoing problems, the report said.
Photo credit: U.S. Army