Archetype Profiles of Military Spouses in Australia – Identifying Perfect Partners and Mean Girls

Military spouses are situated at the junction of the military and civilian worlds. They provide necessary support to military strategic and operational objectives and are also expected to perform a traditional spousal role of the ‘good’ military wife. This article demonstrates the existence of strong military partner archetypes which guide military community norms and expectations of spousal behaviour. In 14 qualitative interviews and five focus groups with Australian military partners, participants revealed many different, yet firm, sentiments related to identity, including fierce independence; a sense of belonging; self-reliance; a desire to help others; belief in fairness and pragmatism. The archetypes outlined in this article shape how partners see their role, and how they interact with other non-military partners and the military organization. This research delivers insights into optimizing military partner services to better support spouses through deployment, relocation and other military experiences.

Veteran Hiring and Retention

This chapter describes the experience and lessons learned regarding the veteran hiring initiative within Military Programs at Walmart. A proponent of veteran hiring for decades, Walmart formally launched the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment in 2013 and is currently the largest private sector employer of veterans and military spouses. While many companies understand the benefits of hiring veterans, a number of companies find that retaining veteran employees can be challenging. Using a four-step model, common-sense tactics utilized by Walmart are provided that can be used to help veterans successfully transition from their military careers to civilian organizations through understanding military and corporate culture and how veterans coming from the military’s culture fit in with an organization’s corporate culture. This chapter also describes how the lessons learned from Walmart’s veteran hiring efforts can be used by smaller companies that may be considering or are actively deploying veteran and military family member hiring initiatives.

The Employment Situation of Military Spouses

This chapter examines military spouse employment, the business case for hiring military spouses, and barriers to their employment. The unemployment rate among military spouses remains high compared to civilian peers even though their educational attainment, pursuit of employment, volunteerism, and engagement in related professional development activities tends to support a strong business case for hiring them. Also, there is no evidence to suggest that military affiliation negatively impacts success or ability to perform in the workplace. Thus, there is a compelling business case to hire military spouses, but they are often overlooked as human capital resources. This chapter will help human resource professionals learn more about the value of military spouse job candidates and the issues that impact their employment across the human resource life cycle from recruitment to retention.

Military Spouses’ Perceptions of Suicide in the Military Spouse Community

Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Defense shows military spouse suicide to be an imminent concern for the U.S. military. Currently, there is an absence of research in the counseling profession related to suicide prevention and intervention for this population. Therefore, this qualitative phenomenological study explored the perceptions of military spouses regarding suicide within their community. Ten military spouses were interviewed twice and were asked to provide written responses to follow-up questions. Six main themes emerged: (a) loss of control, (b) loss of identity, (c) fear of seeking mental health services, (d) difficulty accessing mental health services, (e) the military spouse community as a protective factor, and (f) desire for better communication about available mental health resources. Implications for practicing counselors and military leadership in helping to prevent military spouse suicide as well as recommendations for future research regarding ways to support military spouse mental health and prevent suicide in this community are included.

Risk Factors for Postpartum Depression in Active Duty Women

ABSTRACT Introduction Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common perinatal complication. Risk factors previously found to correlate with PPD in civilians include prenatal depression, childcare stress, limited social support, difficult infant temperament, and maternity blues. Previously identified risk factors in military spouses include spouse deployment/redeployment cycles. It is unclear if these previously identified risk factors are also a risk factor for AD women or if the additional stressors associated with being on active duty (AD) are risk factors for PPD. The purpose of this review is to determine if civilian risk factors have been found to put AD women at risk for PPD and to identify unique risk factors for PPD in AD women. Materials and Methods A scoping literature review was performed using PubMed, Defense Technical Information Center, and PsychINFO. The searches were conducted using relevant medical subject headings and keywords. The inclusion criteria included articles published since 1948 (the year women were legally allowed to join the military) that reference risk factors for postpartum/peripartum depression in AD women serving in the U.S. military. The following exclusion criteria were also applied: in a language other than English, opinion papers, and/or not published in a peer-reviewed journal. Articles meeting criteria were evaluated and mapped to stressors previously identified in the literature for civilian and military spouses with PPD with novel stressors identified as mapping outside this framework. Results Only two articles met the inclusion criteria. The first study included 87 AD women. The second study, a cohort study between 2001 and 2008, included 1660 AD women. Unique risk factors identified in AD women include previous deployments, serving in the Army, smoking status, alcohol use, and low self-esteem. Conclusions Few studies have investigated the risk factors for PPD in AD women. It appears that AD women share many risk factors, or variants of those risk factors, for PPD as their civilian and AD spouse counterparts, but there are also unique risks to consider. More work is needed to improve screening and prevention efforts.