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Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy pp 1923–1927Cite as

Military Families

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Introduction

Military families are defined as those in which one or more members of the family unit serve in the Armed Forces. Typically, researchers use a narrower definition to include the spouse and dependent children of military personnel. Here we focus on military families within the United States (US), beginning with a review of factors that differentiate service members and influence the experience of military family life, including the branch of service, time commitment to the military, and rank of the service member.

Structurally, the US Department of Defense (DoD) is charged with carrying out military policy and coordinating the US Armed Forces. The branches of the US Armed Forces are the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The service branches depend on one another to carry out military missions, but culture, policies, deployment tempo, and even terminology vary widely among the branches (Blaisure et al. 2012). Additionally, service members are part of...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Mallory Lucier-Greer & Frank D. Fincham

Authors
  1. Mallory Lucier-Greer
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  2. Frank D. Fincham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mallory Lucier-Greer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay L. Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony L. Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Illinois School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University, Schaumburg, IL, USA

    Mudita Rastogi

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Lucier-Greer, M., Fincham, F.D. (2019). Military Families. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_488

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