Human Ecology Research

The Korean Home Economics Association (대한가정학회)
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Military Personnel's Occupational Characteristics and Family Life among Military Wives with Preschool Children: Underlying Processes

군인의 직업특성과 군인아내의 결혼만족도 및 양육스트레스의 관련성: 부정적 인식과 군인가족 자부심의 매개효과

  • Park, Jisoo (Dobong-gu Healthy Family & Multicultural Family Center, Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University) ;
  • Lee, Jaerim (Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University, Research Institute of Humman Ecology, Seoul National University)
  • 박지수 (도봉구건강가정.다문화가족지원센터, 서울대학교 아동가족학과) ;
  • 이재림 (서울대학교 아동가족학과 및 생활과학연구소)
  • Received : 2018.08.28
  • Accepted : 2019.01.09
  • Published : 2019.02.28
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Abstract

Based on the stress process model, this study examined the process of how military personnel's occupational characteristics (i.e., long and unspecified work hours, frequent moving) is associated with their wives' marital satisfaction and parenting stress. We focused on whether the wives' perception toward the characteristics of military occupation and the wives' military family pride mediated the association. An online survey was conducted with 323 women married to professional active-duty military husbands, had at least one preschool child, and lived with the husband and child. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the wives' perception of military occupational characteristics and military family pride mediated the relationship between their husband's work hours and the wives' marital satisfaction and parenting stress. This serial multiple mediation indicated that the longer and more unspecified the husband's work hours were, the more negative the wife's perceptions were towards his military occupation, which led to lower marital satisfaction and higher parenting stress. The single mediation effect of negative perceptions was also significant. Frequent moving was indirectly related to the wives' marital satisfaction and parenting stress through only the wives' negative perceptions toward military occupational characteristics. This result indicates that military spouses who experienced frequent moves are likely to have more negative attitudes toward military occupation, which leads to lower marital satisfactions and higher parenting stress. This study contributes to the literature by identifying the underlying mechanisms between military occupational characteristics and military wives' family life through the mediating roles of negative perceptions and military family pride.

Keywords

References

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