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This presentation reports the development and evaluation of a psychoeducation group designed to assist participating clients who are either couples and/or married to become more knowledgeable about the resources availiable in their local community to address their problems and needs concerning

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“The overall divorce rate among both male and female service members held steady in fiscal 2017, marking the fourth year running that the rate has hovered between 3 percent and 3.1 percent. About 21,290 of 689,060 married troops divorced over the course of fiscal 2017, according to data released Tuesday by the Pentagon to Military.com. In 2016, the rate was slightly higher, with about 22,500 divorces out of 707,230 marriages, according to historic data compiled by Military.com” (Bushatz, 2018).

Stresses associated with deployments and other scenarios interfere with spouses’ ability to maintain their relationships; marriages which otherwise would’ve remained fulfilling in the absence of military stress. Alluding from this premise, divorce rates for military may rise where military demands increase (Karney and Crown, 2007).

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I addressed the needs gap for military couples experiencing marital issues to combat growing divorce rate amongst this population and preserve military marriages by establishing a educational group designed to distribute a compilation of resources in a handout.

The study utilized an outcome evaluation. I distributed a pre- and post- survey to each participant to evaluate how much knowledge each client has of the resources available throughout the community to further assist with addressing the needs beforehand, and how much they feel they have gained following the program.

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Evaluation Question:

Does participation in an educational group designed to highlight and help allocate resources for military couples and families in their community increase clients self-efficacy and sustainment of their partnerships?

Hypothesis:

Provided with knowledge of additional resources besides traditional couples and marriages talk therapy, clients who participate in educational training will feel better equipped to seek out these resources and more effectively address their issues and enhance the preservation of relationships and families.

Research Design:
paired T- test, pretest, post test

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Pretest Question: On a scale from one to five, (1) being “not knowledgeable at all” to (5) “extremely knowledgeable,” how knowledgeable about additional resources to supplement relationship, marital, or familial issues and concerns aside from therapy are you aware of?

Post-test Question: On a scale from one to five, (1) being “not knowledgeable at all” to (5) “extremely knowledgeable,” following the educational group meetings, how knowledgeable about additional resources to supplement relationship, marital, or familial issues and concerns aside from therapy are you aware of?

(Click on photo below to enlarge results)

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A paired t test was performed to examine if there were differences in participants knowledgeability of resources before and after implemented program.

-Eight participants completed both surveys following four meetings over a 6-week period, showing that participants reported higher knowledgeability scores post test (M=4.375) in comparison to pretest (M=2.125)

(Click on photo below to enlarge results)

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What can be concluded by the findings in my analyses is that with given formal psychoeducational training, clients feel more knowledgeable and prepared to seek additional local and community resources previously unaware of

Beforehand, clients were not as aware of these “non-traditional” and supplemental resources as their first and only thought was mainly to seek traditional talk therapy for couples counseling.

Possible limitations of this intervention are that since it is voluntary, and performed outside of traditional therapeutic hours, some clients might not be able to consistently attend, limiting their preparedness in comparison to others.

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The main purpose of this evaluation was to find a potential way to address the growing concerns and marital and/or couples-related issues in regards to military populations to increase the preservation of families, support for those in service, and access to resources for these individuals.

This study attempted to do so by bridging the potential “knowledge gap” of resources that was available to this population within the community outside of therapy to encourage sustainment and cohesion.

I have found that from the given survey responses, most couples feel more readily prepared to seek additional resources provided with the given educational group, and that going forward this intervention might be supplemental in assisting this population.

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Bushatz, A. (2018, March 21). Troop Divorce Rate Unchanged; Marriage Rate Continues Fall Retrieved from https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/03/21/troop-divorce-rateunchanged-marriage-rate-continues-fall.html

Karney, B. R., Crown, J. S., United States. Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense, National Defense Research Institute (U.S.), & Rand Corporation. (2007). Families Under Stress. Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation.

Wang, L., Seelig, A., Wadsworth, S. M., McMaster, H., Alcaraz, J. E., & Crum-Cianflone, N. F. (2015). Associations of military divorce with mental, behavioral, and physical health outcomes. BMC Psychiatry, 15(1).

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