A new study from America has found that the risk of military marriages ending in divorce rises with the length of military deployments.
More than 2.1 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since combat began in October of 2001. Some earlier studies had found that deployments had little or no effect on divorce rates or even helped to decrease the risk of divorce.
The data for the new study, which was conducted by the RAND Corporation, covers a wider time frame, follows couples for a longer period after marriage, and differentiates between divorce risk before and after the 9/11 attacks.
Researchers found that cumulative months of deployment matter. More cumulative months of deployment increased the risk of divorce among military couples, regardless of when the couple married or when the deployment occurred. The risk of divorce was higher for hostile deployments than for non-hostile deployments, and women were always more likely to divorce than male service members as a result of time in deployment.
Researchers say cumulative deployment may be more disruptive and harder to adjust to in couples where a service member is female, although the study did not specifically address reasons for the higher numbers.
Ninety-seven percent of the divorces occurred after a return from deployment. The risk of divorce was lower among military families that had children.
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