Abstract
While research on spirituality and religion as it relates to stress, coping, and resilience has increased, little has been focused on military families. The research question that guided this qualitative investigation was, “What is the relationship of spirituality, religion, and family resilience among military spouses?” Seven active duty military couples who had experienced at least one deployment completed a questionnaire about their spiritual and religious beliefs and practices; participated in an in-depth interview and completed matrices charting the trajectory of each spouse’s reliance on spirituality, religious practices, and family resilience over the duration of each crisis; and engaged in a follow-up debriefing interview. Four themes emerged, including couples’ identifying and perceiving critical events, making sense of their marital relationship, professing their spiritual and religious experiences, and coping with their critical events. Conclusions were discussed in the context of the conceptual framework of stress and coping theory, family systems theory, and social constructionism. Other researchers studying military families may wish to examine ethnic, cultural, and gender differences which appeared in this study to differentially influence spouses’ perceptions of and ability to use their spirituality and religion as mechanisms for coping with deployment and other crises, including illness and death of family members, and achieving homeostasis. For clinicians, mental health professionals, and military chaplains, findings suggest that inclusion of individual family spiritual and religious beliefs and practices as a centerpiece for discussion in the therapeutic process is warranted.
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