Factors that help and hinder the relationship between veterans and their partners: the partners' perspective

• Main Author: Papile, Chiara
• Other Authors: Black, Timothy G.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: relationships; veterans; women; counseling; UVic Subject Index::Humanities and Social Sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/1482

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that help and hinder the relationship between Canadian Forces (CF) veterans and their partners, from the perspective of the partners. Six wives and one girlfriend of former CF members were interviewed using Flanagan’s (1954) qualitative critical incident technique. Interviews yielded 17 helping incidents and 24 hindering incidents. Categories were created to comprehensively cluster the incidents. The helping categories were: supportive behaviours, collaboration, reconnecting, positive time apart, and compromising. The hindering categories were: communication difficulties, aggressive and intimidating behaviour, burdened with responsibility, inconsiderate behaviour, failure to provide support, and feeling ashamed of partner. Few links were found with regard to military employment; instead, the categories are consistent with past research exploring important relationship factors. Implications for counselling are provided, and future directions discussed.