Staff Perspective: Military PCS Moves - Their Impact on Military Partners
I recently ran across a newly published article by Drs. Sissi Ribiero, Keith Renshaw, and Elizbeth Allen titled “Military-related relocation stress and psychological distress in military partners.” I was intrigued by the title, since during my time as a military spouse I found the frequent moves to be one of the most challenging aspects of military life.
Moving is considered to be a normative military family stressor. According to the Department of Defense, one third of military members experience a “permanent change of station” (PCS) move every year (Tong et al., 2018). While an exciting aspect of military service for some, PCS moves can be disruptive in numerous ways, impacting all members of a military family. Beyond having to find housing and set up a new household, there is a lack of continuity in a variety of areas: families need to get established with new health care providers, children must change schools, and spouse employment is often disrupted. In addition, PCS moves have been found to be negatively correlated with Service member retention intentions (Tong et al., 2018).
In September of last year, Blue Star Families (BSF) published a Pulse Check focused on relocation and housing, which explored a number of challenges specifically related to this topic. Some of their areas of focus included: time spent in temporary housing (while searching or waiting for permanent housing), finding and securing permanent housing, and financial costs of relocation. In addition, the Comprehensive Report for the 2022 BSF annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey was just released last week, and one of the notable findings was that concerns about basic allowance for housing (BAH) and off-base housing rose to one of the “top-5” issues for military families for the first time in the survey’s history.
While preferences for housing vary among military families, the majority of active-duty family respondents on the BSF Survey reported preferring to live in civilian housing. However, between rising home prices and limited availability in the civilian market, many families are finding it challenging to locate acceptable housing comparable to military-provided housing within their BAH allotment. Some of the most common challenges reported by active-duty military families were: “cost/BAH insufficient” (76%), “inventory/available homes” (29%), and “neighborhood/safety” (16%). I found this issue to be nicely summed up by some of the direct quotes from military family members included in the Comprehensive Report:
- “Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, was well over BAH. Because there were so few options, people were bidding up on rentals. We waited for housing but there was nothing available, we even waited until 5 weeks after school started. It was a nightmare. We still come out of pocket by about $500 a month.” (Active-duty Air Force Service member and spouse, p. 66)
- “Finding a house that was of adequate size, in a safe and affordable area, that was in good living condition for BAH was nearly impossible.” (Active-duty Navy spouse, p. 66)
Despite these stressors, little research has directly examined the impact of military PCS moves on military partner distress. While there’s been a noticeable increase in research focusing on military families over the past decade, it has frequently focused on the impact of deployments and Service members’ PTSD symptoms rather than on military lifestyle stressors. Ribiero and colleagues (2023), however, examined the degree to which difficulties related to PCS moves, deployment separation, and Service members’ PTSD symptoms uniquely predicted partner psychological distress. Interestingly, they found that problems related to PCS moves (including problems related to employment/school, social support, and medical or behavioral health) were a significant predictor of partner distress (including feelings of depression and stress), whereas deployment separation was not. In addition, they found that this association remained significant even after accounting for Service member PTSD symptom severity.
While it’s obviously important to continue to evaluate the impact of military deployments and Service members’ PTSD symptoms on military partners, I look forward to seeing more research on the impact of more normative military family lifestyle stressors as well.
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Marjorie Weinstock, Ph.D., is a Senior Military Behavioral Health Psychologist at the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
References:
Blue Star Families. (2023). 2022 annual military family lifestyle survey: Comprehensive report.
Retrieved from https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BSF_MFLS_Spring23_Full_Report_Digital.pdf
Blue Star Families. (2022). Pulse check: Relocation and housing. Retrieved from
https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BSF_PulseCheck_Report_Sep2022.pdf
Ribeiro, S., Renshaw, K. D., & Allen, E. S. (2023). Military-related relocation stress and
psychological distress in military partners. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(1), 45-53.
https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001030
Tong, P. K., Payne, L. A., Bond, C. A., Meadows, S. O., Lewis, J. L., Friedman, E. M.,
Maksabedian Hernandez, E. J (2018). Enhancing family stability during a permanent
change of station: A review of disruptions and policies. RAND Corporation.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2304.html
I recently ran across a newly published article by Drs. Sissi Ribiero, Keith Renshaw, and Elizbeth Allen titled “Military-related relocation stress and psychological distress in military partners.” I was intrigued by the title, since during my time as a military spouse I found the frequent moves to be one of the most challenging aspects of military life.
Moving is considered to be a normative military family stressor. According to the Department of Defense, one third of military members experience a “permanent change of station” (PCS) move every year (Tong et al., 2018). While an exciting aspect of military service for some, PCS moves can be disruptive in numerous ways, impacting all members of a military family. Beyond having to find housing and set up a new household, there is a lack of continuity in a variety of areas: families need to get established with new health care providers, children must change schools, and spouse employment is often disrupted. In addition, PCS moves have been found to be negatively correlated with Service member retention intentions (Tong et al., 2018).
In September of last year, Blue Star Families (BSF) published a Pulse Check focused on relocation and housing, which explored a number of challenges specifically related to this topic. Some of their areas of focus included: time spent in temporary housing (while searching or waiting for permanent housing), finding and securing permanent housing, and financial costs of relocation. In addition, the Comprehensive Report for the 2022 BSF annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey was just released last week, and one of the notable findings was that concerns about basic allowance for housing (BAH) and off-base housing rose to one of the “top-5” issues for military families for the first time in the survey’s history.
While preferences for housing vary among military families, the majority of active-duty family respondents on the BSF Survey reported preferring to live in civilian housing. However, between rising home prices and limited availability in the civilian market, many families are finding it challenging to locate acceptable housing comparable to military-provided housing within their BAH allotment. Some of the most common challenges reported by active-duty military families were: “cost/BAH insufficient” (76%), “inventory/available homes” (29%), and “neighborhood/safety” (16%). I found this issue to be nicely summed up by some of the direct quotes from military family members included in the Comprehensive Report:
- “Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, was well over BAH. Because there were so few options, people were bidding up on rentals. We waited for housing but there was nothing available, we even waited until 5 weeks after school started. It was a nightmare. We still come out of pocket by about $500 a month.” (Active-duty Air Force Service member and spouse, p. 66)
- “Finding a house that was of adequate size, in a safe and affordable area, that was in good living condition for BAH was nearly impossible.” (Active-duty Navy spouse, p. 66)
Despite these stressors, little research has directly examined the impact of military PCS moves on military partner distress. While there’s been a noticeable increase in research focusing on military families over the past decade, it has frequently focused on the impact of deployments and Service members’ PTSD symptoms rather than on military lifestyle stressors. Ribiero and colleagues (2023), however, examined the degree to which difficulties related to PCS moves, deployment separation, and Service members’ PTSD symptoms uniquely predicted partner psychological distress. Interestingly, they found that problems related to PCS moves (including problems related to employment/school, social support, and medical or behavioral health) were a significant predictor of partner distress (including feelings of depression and stress), whereas deployment separation was not. In addition, they found that this association remained significant even after accounting for Service member PTSD symptom severity.
While it’s obviously important to continue to evaluate the impact of military deployments and Service members’ PTSD symptoms on military partners, I look forward to seeing more research on the impact of more normative military family lifestyle stressors as well.
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Marjorie Weinstock, Ph.D., is a Senior Military Behavioral Health Psychologist at the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
References:
Blue Star Families. (2023). 2022 annual military family lifestyle survey: Comprehensive report.
Retrieved from https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BSF_MFLS_Spring23_Full_Report_Digital.pdf
Blue Star Families. (2022). Pulse check: Relocation and housing. Retrieved from
https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BSF_PulseCheck_Report_Sep2022.pdf
Ribeiro, S., Renshaw, K. D., & Allen, E. S. (2023). Military-related relocation stress and
psychological distress in military partners. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(1), 45-53.
https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001030
Tong, P. K., Payne, L. A., Bond, C. A., Meadows, S. O., Lewis, J. L., Friedman, E. M.,
Maksabedian Hernandez, E. J (2018). Enhancing family stability during a permanent
change of station: A review of disruptions and policies. RAND Corporation.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2304.html