The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hard on military marriages, with the risk of divorce rising directly in relation to the length of time enlisted service members have been deployed to combat zones, according to a new American study by the RAND Corporation.
The negative effects of deployment were largest among female military members, with women facing a greater chance of divorce than men under all the scenarios examined by researchers, according to the findings published online by the Journal of Population Economics.
While researchers found that any deployment increases the risk of divorce among military members, the negative consequences were higher for those deployed to the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Among couples married before the 9/11 attacks, those that experienced deployment of 12 months to war zones were 28% more likely to become divorced within three years of marriage as compared to peers who experienced similar deployment before the wars began.
The study found that the divorce risk was lower for couples married after the 9/11 terrorist attacks than for couples married before 9/11. Researchers theorise that couples who married after the 9/11 terrorist attacks were better prepared for the challenges posed by being married in the military than those who married before the conflicts began. This is consistent with the hypothesis that only the couples willing to accept the risks associated with military life went ahead to marry in the post 9/11 era.
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