Spouse Abuse Among United States Air Force Personnel Who Deployed in Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom

• Published in: Journal of family psychology 2013-10, Vol.27 (5), p.754-761
• Main Authors: Rabenhorst, Mandy M, McCarthy, Randy J, Thomsen, Cynthia J, Milner, Joel S, Travis, Wendy J, Foster, Rachel E, Copeland, Carol W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Afghan Campaign 2001; Air Force Personnel; Armed forces; Biological and medical sciences; Combat Experience; Couple and family; Domestic violence; Emotional abuse; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Intimate Partner Violence; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Military Deployment; Military Personnel - psychology; Military Personnel - statistics & numerical data; Poisson Distribution; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Regression analysis; Risk assessment; Sex Factors; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social psychology; Spouse Abuse - psychology; Spouse Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Time Factors; United States; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0893-3200; 1939-1293
• DOI: 10.1037/a0034283

The authors examined spouse abuse perpetration among all married U.S. Air Force personnel who deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom. Using Poisson and conditional Poisson regression, they compared rates of spouse abuse perpetration predeployment and postdeployment in the population of married U.S. Air Force personnel who had a combat-related deployment between October 1, 2001 and October 31, 2008 (N = 156,296). Just over 2% (n = 3,524) of deployers perpetrated at least one substantiated incident of spouse physical or emotional abuse within the 308,197,653 days at risk for abuse during the study period. Male deployers perpetrated spouse abuse at approximately twice the rate of female deployers. Regarding changes in rates of spouse abuse perpetration postdeployment versus predeployment among all deployers, the authors found no differences overall; however, several deployer and incident-related characteristics moderated this effect. Rates of emotional abuse, mild abuse, and abuse not involving alcohol were significantly lower postdeployment, whereas rates of moderate/severe abuse and abuse involving alcohol were significantly higher postdeployment. Although the majority of U.S. Air Force deployers did not perpetrate any substantiated incidents of spouse abuse, there was variability in the impact of deployment on spouse abuse rates before versus after deployment. The finding that rates of moderate/severe spouse abuse incidents involving alcohol were higher postdeployment suggests a need for focused prevention/intervention efforts.