A systematic review of interventions aimed at enhancing wellbeing, resilience or couple functioning in spouses of serving military personnel / Evaluation of a web-based, resilience intervention for military spouses to support wellbeing.

Abstract

Objective. Military spouses face unique challenges which can result in psychological distress and breakdowns in relationship satisfaction. Previous reviews have considered systemic interventions and support for partners of veterans. Limited information is known about interventions used to support the wellbeing, resilience or couple functioning of active-duty military spouses. This review aimed to explore the quality, outcomes and effectiveness of interventions which currently exist. Method. A systematic review of 541 studies from the databases Ovid PsycInfo, Ovid Medline, PubMed, and Web of Science was conducted. Interventions focused on supporting mental health disorders were excluded. A total of 537 studies were screened, providing 16 studies for review and appraisal via the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool. Results. 16 studies, rated as weak or medium quality, evaluated 13 interventions with outcomes for non-serving spouses, mostly located in the United States (US). Interventions were either deployment specific or supported military life in general using diverse formats. Most studies reported outcomes for couple functioning, with six aimed at wellbeing and/or resilience. Two interventions were designed specifically for use by non serving spouses, with the remainder couple- or family-focused. Conclusion. Findings suggest various interventions for the military spouse exist. However, these mostly require additional family members to be present. Only two interventions were primarily aimed at the non serving spouse alone. Overall findings suggest positive outcomes for non-serving spouses in the short-term, with limited evidence of long-term effectiveness. Suggestions are provided for further research, alongside development of interventions for non-serving spouses located within the United Kingdom (UK).