The Effect of Military Involvement on Adult Attachment: A Stepfamily Perspective

Background and Purpose: Military deployment is well-recognized for the potential for problems in the lives of returning service members. Among the adverse effects of deployment (e.g., PTSD), problems in relationship functioning are often cited. Adverse childhood events have also been shown to increase risk for maladaptive stress responses in veteran population. On the other hand, supportive, positive and cohesive family environments have been shown to be a protective factor for military-related stressors and maladaptive stress reactions. The current study sought to test the effect of military involvement on the relationship between childhood attachment with primary biological parent and adult attachment style.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in partnership with Qualtrics and included a quota sample of emerging adults (18-30 years old) who lived in a step family. The study focused on retrospective reports of step family experiences as well as current functioning as adults. Our main sample consisted of 1,593 individuals with a mean age of 24.67. The sample was 59% female and ethnically diverse (56% White, 12% Latino, 10% Black, 3% Asian and 2% other; Native Americans were oversampled a priori to amount to 18% of the sample). Participants who reported military involvement were the focus of this study (7%). Planned data analysis included OLS regression.

The Adult Attachment Questionnaire is a 17-item questionnaire that consistently factor analyzes into two primary subscales: Anxious and Avoidant. The STEP 1 subscale measures retrospective ratings of step family experiences and perceptions. STEP 1 asks respondents to rate their biological parent relationship on closeness and warmth, overall parent ratings, and openness/safety of communication.

Results: We conducted a multiple regression analysis to evaluate the interaction between strength of relationship with a nonresidential biological parent and military involvement and its effect on anxious attachment. The predictors were strength of relationship with a biological parent and military involvement, while the criterion was anxious attachment. The interaction of the predictors was significantly related to anxious attachment, F (17, 1539) =12.10, p. <.05. The regression model accounted for approximately 11% of the variance in anxious attachment. The standardized multiple correlation coefficient for the interaction between biological parent relationship and military involvement on attachment was 0.15 in this sample.

Conclusion: Results indicate that the relationship between positive regard for a biological parent and anxious attachment is significantly affected by military involvement. Specifically, military involvement tends to significantly enhance the likelihood of anxious overall attachment even when relations with a biological parent are reported to be positive. This is significant because positive relations with a biological parent are strongly and negatively correlated with anxious attachment. In other words, positive relations with a biological parent tend to protect against or reduce the likelihood of anxious attachment whereas for those with military experience, this protective effect tends to disappear.

Implications: Helping individuals form positive relationships with their children can increase the likelihood of developing secure adult attachment. Realizing the potentially adverse effect of military involvement on adult attachment can help practitioners better adapt to the needs of their veteran clients.