ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: DEPLOYMENT STRESSORS, USE OF MILITARY AND CIVILIAN RESOURCES, AND POST- DEPLOYMENT ADJUSTMENT FOR WIVES OF

In the current climate of sustained and intensive military operations in the Middle East, spouses of recently deployed active duty service members are negatively affected both psychologically and relationally. Although there is a growing body of literature on spouses ’ adjustment during the deployment cycle, the role of accessing military and civilian resources in reducing distress has not been examined. Guided by Family Stress Theory and the ABC-X model, it was hypothesized that accessing military or civilian resources would weaken the relationships between high levels of deployment cycle stressors and spouses ’ post-deployment levels of mental health problems and marital satisfaction. The current study used a sample of almost 10,000 female spouses of active duty service members from the Military Family Life Project, a secondary dataset collected and maintained by the Department of Defense. Two types of hierarchical regression appropriate for non-normal data were used to analyze the relationships between four deployment cycle stressors, three types of military and civilian resources, and spouses ’ post-deployment levels of mental health problems and marital satisfaction. Findings indicate that spouses who experience more challenges at home during th