A new study shows that the military and the civilian population share virtually the same divorce rate, despite the tremendous stress and pressure faced by the military over the last decade. The possible reason? Pay and benefits.
The lead researcher on the study, published by the RAND Corp., says that the extra pay and, in particular, benefits servicemembers and families receive when they are married likely both increases the marriage rate in the military and keeps those families together in extremely stressful situations – situation that would likely break relationships in the civilian world.
Both the study’s lead researcher, Benjamin Karney, and Army chaplain Col. John Read, who is in charge of Soldier and family ministry for the service, said that strength and resiliency do likely play a part in keeping military marriages together in the face of unprecedented stress.
But, even though researchers can really only make an educated guess as to the cause, Karney said a rate of marriage above that of civilians and a rate of divorce close to or below the rest of society’s points to a single leading reason: the role housing allowances, insurance, child care subsidies, counseling and other financial support systems play.
One of the key pieces of information missing here that could either fuel or kill Karney’s theory is the rate of divorce among former servicemembers and veterans – data no one currently tracks. The RAND Corp. is getting ready to launch a long term study examining that issue among many others. (You may even be randomly selected to participate in the study like we were).
The commenters on my story over here seem to think that this theory is a bunch of bunk. What’s your take?
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Well I think it helps, but it was meant too. Perhaps RAND should look at its own dissertations regarding Military spouses. Many of these compensations are meant to offset the wage and career penalty that spouses incur across moves. It would be interesting to track Veterans and Retired members!!
Financial stability can play a role on getting through hard times in a marriage. You add financial instability and lack of health care to an already tough situation, and the stress can add to the problems.
There are many people I have met along the way, who stay together because of the kids. With a military lifestyle, custodial arrangements in divorce are exponentially more difficult than for a family that can live and work within a short distance of one another. I know, I was one. I bounced back and forth between my mom and my AD dad over the years for every deployment, and school he attended, I moved again. I had no stability, except instability. Some divorced couples want to be far away from each other even if it means their kids will be far away too.
We were talking about this in a spouse group the other day. There are so many stresses on military families that it would be easy to just throw up your hands and give up. I agree that the lack of stress of the benefits, knowing the job was stable, having health care and child care… even having the support network checking up on the chain on command. It saddens me when people say we're so over paid and get too many benefits; for what we go through it's necessary to keep people in and to keep families together.
The military forgets the spouse if there is a divorce, they are thrown out like a pair of dirty socks in the laundry.They are completely left out in the cold with nothing, even though they supported their spouse and was there for the family/kids through it all. If you were not married 20 years and in the service with your spouse for 20 years…forget it! When you get a divorce your time served for protecting America and holding the family together doesn't matter. Sad situation for the civilian/military spouse. All benefits and health care is gone. I would never be married to a military person again, no security in your life after marriage if you can no longer make it work. After 10 years the military civilian spouses should be able to continue with at least the health care, at the same cost that is was as if they are married, for their service at home while the spouse is gone protecting America. Military spouses do not count and according to the goverment haven't done a darn thing to keep America safe!