Publications
Research Publication 2
Title Publication Date/Location
Engaging military couples in marital research: Does requesting referrals from service members to recruit their spouses introduce sample bias? BMC Medical Research Methodology 2018 Oct;18(1):114

McMaster HS, Stander VA, Williams CS, Woodall KA, O'Malley CA, Bauer LM, Davila EP

Enrolling couples in research studies is not uncommon; however, most research reports fail to provide details about recruitment strategies or have the ability to examine selection biases. This paper examined two recruitment strategies used to enroll military couples in a longitudinal study, assessing the impact of both strategies on the representativeness of the final study sample. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Program, results suggest that requesting referrals from service members to recruit their spouses introduced minimal bias compared to contacting spouses directly. Service members appeared to be more likely to refer their spouses if they perceived the research topic as relevant to their spouse, and these spouses were more likely to respond for similar reasons. Even though referred spouses were more likely to respond, the overall success rate of using a referral strategy was less than that of recruiting spouses directly.

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Families serve too: military spouse well-being after separation from active-duty service Anxiety, Stress & Coping ePub; 2022 March

Corry NH, Joneydi R, McMaster HS, Williams CS, Glynn S, Spera C, Stander VA

A life course model was applied to assess spouse well-being following the transition from military to civilian life. Spouses of service members who had separated from the military (versus those who had not) reported poorer mental health and family relationship quality. Spouses of active-duty service members reported greater increases in work-family conflict. Protective factors included having more psychological and social resources and less financial stress.

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Family Separation from Military Service and Children's Externalizing Symptoms: Exploring Moderation by Non-military Spouse Employment, Family Financial Stress, Marital Quality, and the Parenting Alliance 2023 November Published, online

Richardson, S.M., Pflieger, J.C., Hisle-Gorman, E., Briggs, E.C., Fairbank, J.A., & Stander, V.A.

During a 3-year follow-up period, we investigated how family separation from the military affects the behavioral adjustment of early school-age children. We also explored whether factors such as military spouse employment, parental financial stress, marital quality, or the parenting alliance influenced children’s adjustment during this transition. Our results indicated that when the spouse was employed and the family separated from the military, children exhibited fewer behavioral problems. Additionally, we found that a strong parenting alliance was associated with decreased behavioral problems among children in families that remained in the military.

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Gender differences in marital and military predictors of service member career satisfaction. Family Relations 2022 May; 1-23

Street, T., Lewin, A., Woodall, K., Cruz-Cano, R., Thoma, M., & Stander, V. A.

U.S. servicewomen may face unique military experiences unlike those of servicemen, and stressors can affect their satisfaction with the military. Understanding factors influencing satisfaction among the increasing number of U.S. servicewomen in the U.S. military is important for retention. This study increases our understanding of the influence military and family stressors have on service members' satisfaction with the military. It also reveals gender differences in military satisfaction and recommends strategies to address the needs of diverse military families.

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Guidance for use of weights: An analysis of different types of weights and their implications when using SAS PROCs. General Psychiatry 2019 Feb 20;32(1):e100038

Richardson, S., Lin, T., Li, Y., Niu, X., Xu, M., Stander, V., & Tu, X.

SAS and other popular statistical packages provide support for survey data with sampling weights. For example, PROC MEANS and PROC LOGISTIC in SAS have their counterparts PROC SURVEYMEANS and PROC SURVEYLOGISTIC to facilitate analysis of data from complex survey studies. On the other hand, PROC MEANS and many other classic SAS procedures also provide an option for including weights and yield identical point estimates, but different standard errors (SEs), as their corresponding survey procedures. This paper takes an in-depth look at different types of weights and provides guidance on use of different SAS procedures.

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High-risk and long-term opioid prescribing to military spouses in the Millennium Cohort Family Study Military Medicine 2020 Sep;185(9-10):e1759-e1769

McDonald DC, Radakrishnan S, Sparks AC, Corry NH, Carballo CE, Carlson K, Stander VA

The use and misuse of opioids by active service members has been examined in several studies, but little is known about their spouses' opioid use. This study estimates the number of military spouses who received high-risk or long-term opioid prescriptions between 2010 and 2014, and addresses how the Military Health System can help prevent risky prescribing in order to improve military force readiness. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study and the Pharmacy Data Transaction Service, this study found that nearly 1 in 10 military spouses received an opioid prescription that put their health at risk. Spouses with physical pain, a lack of social support, and adverse childhood experiences were all associated with receiving higher risk opioid prescriptions.

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Influence of family factors on service members' decisions to leave the military. Family Relations 2022 August; 1-20

Woodall, K., Esquivel, A., Powell, T., Riviere, L., Amoroso, P., & Stander, V. A.

Service member retention is a crucial aspect in maintaining and advancing the U.S. military and its mission. To increase retention, it is important to understand why active duty personnel voluntarily leave while they are still highly qualified. For married service members, spouses likely influence the decision to stay or leave military service. The current study used data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study for 4,539 dyads comprising service members and their spouses to investigate family predictors of voluntary military separation.

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Influence of work and life stressors on marital quality among dual and non-dual military couples Journal of Family Issues 2020 Nov;41(11):2045-2064

Woodall KA, Richardson SM, Pflieger JC, Hawkins SA, Stander VA

Maintaining a healthy marriage may be challenging for military couples as they attempt to balance the demands of work and family; for dual-military couples, this can be even more challenging. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, we examined whether military stress experiences negatively impact marital quality through the mediation of work-family conflict. Spouse gender and dual-military status were included as moderators. Results demonstrated that more military stress experiences was related to lower marital quality, which was mediated by work-family conflict. Additionally, female dual spouses reported lower marital quality than male dual spouses and civilian spouses. Findings from this study highlight the importance of providing support to military spouses for stressful military events and potentially tailoring support services for female dual spouses to improve marital quality.

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Longitudinal patterns of military spousal alcohol consumption: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Family Study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 2022 July; 83(4), 546-555

Sparks, A. C., Williams, C. S., Pflieger, J. C., Jacobson, I., Corry, N. H., Radakrishnan, S., & Stander, V. A.

Alcohol use in the military is prevalent and has short- and long-term health, safety, and career consequences. Although several studies have examined service members’ alcohol consumption, few have focused on alcohol use among military spouses. This study assessed factors at individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels to determine associations with risky alcohol use among military spouses.

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Mental health of children of deployed and non-deployed US military service members: The Millennium Cohort Family Study Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 2018 Dec;39(9):683-692

Fairbank JA, Briggs EC, Lee RC, Corry NH, Pflieger JC, Gerrity ET, Amaya-Jackson LM, Stander VA, Murphy RA

Prior research has found that youth in military families were significantly more likely to report higher rates of major depression and use of illicit drugs in comparison to their non-military counterparts. The present study investigated the associations between service member deployment experiences and family demographic factors and children’s mental health and psychological functioning, utilizing data collected from 9,872 Service members/military spouses through both online and mail survey options. The results from the Family Study indicated that while most spouses did not report that their children had mental health, emotional, or behavioral difficulties regardless of parental deployment status, a significant minority of children whose parents had been combat deployed were more likely to have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and depression by a doctor or health professional in comparison to youth without a deployed parent. Children with a non-combat deployed service member parent were also more likely to have been assigned a diagnosis of depression in comparison to youth without a deployed parent.

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