D. Bruce Bell

EFFECTS OF A MILITARY OVERSEAS PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT ON MARITAL QUALITY, SATISFACTION, AND STABILITY

Changes in self-reported soldier marital satisfaction and marital quality were assessed at three points in time, 1994–1997, before, during, and after a 1995 peacekeeping deployment of approximately 100 married soldiers to the Sinai peninsula. Analysis shows a moderate decline in marital satisfaction during the deployment (effect size of 0.27–0.29) but no overall change in the long term. Marital quality did not change significantly over time. Marital stability rates were especially low for soldiers who reported that their marriage was in trouble prior to the deployment. It appears that stable marriages can survive 6-mo. deployments without long-term decrements in satisfaction or quality. How many couples will continue to accept voluntarily a military lifestyle that requires frequent sacrifices of marital satisfaction as may occur during separations and deployments remains an open question, even though intentions for retention did not appear correlated with marital satisfaction or changes in marital satisfaction over the deployment in this study.

Expectations, Use, and Evaluation of Communication Media among Deployed Peacekeepers

As part of an experimental unit, over five hundred active- and reserve-component (AC, RC) soldiers deployed to the Sinai Desert in 1995 on a peacekeeping mission. While most junior enlisted personnel were reservists, leadership positions were shared between components. Before their departure, most soldiers had high expectations regarding their ability to use a variety of communication media to reach their families. While their reported use of communication media was less than what they had expected, almost all soldiers did use the telephone or other means to communicate with home during their deployment. Contrary to our hypotheses, communication media use was not strongly related to rank or component (AC, RC), though junior enlisted personnel were somewhat less likely than other ranks to use some communication media. As expected, married soldiers were somewhat more likely to use telecommunications than unmarried soldiers. While all forms of communication media were deemed useful for conveying information, more interactive forms of communication (e.g., telephone) were preferred for communicating with family and friends, especially with respect to time-sensitive or other more difficult issues.

RECENT RESEARCH ON FAMILY FACTORS AND READINESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR MILITARY LEADERS

Past research on the relationship between family factors and military readiness in the Army has suggested that family issues affect retention far more than readiness. New data on individual soldier readiness were analyzed to assess the relative importance of family factors (internal and external family adaptation) compared to unit readiness, longevity, rank, and gender. Family factors were significant predictors, although external family adaptation appeared to be more important than internal family adaptation. Although variables related to retention were more strongly related to family factors than our readiness variables, the differences were less substantial than those reported previously. The data seemed to suggest that reserve-component readiness might be more affected by family stress than the active component and that officer readiness might be more strongly affected by family worries than enlisted personnel readiness, but more research is needed to confirm those results.

Dimensionality of military job satisfaction items: an exploratory factor analysis of data from the spring 1996 Sample Survey of Military Personnel.

The Sample Survey of Military Personnel in the spring of 1996 asked detailed questions of Army personnel about job satisfaction. Maximum likelihood factor analysis yielded four factors: satisfaction with supervision, with job environment, with the duty specifically, and with opportunity for development, factors similar to those used in Smiths Job Descriptive Index, 1992, Scales developed from these factors showed acceptable internal consistency reliability and correlated as expected with measures of satisfaction with Army life, retention, morale, combat preparedness, and overall job satisfaction. Some divergent validity was established with measures of personal/family stress and with previous job stress. Demographic data suggested that soldiers with higher education found more satisfying job opportunities while those with higher rank, more years of service, and higher age reported greater satisfaction with job fulfillment, perhaps a consequence of selection effects.

Relationship of motor proficiency and reading retardation.

The relationship of motor and reading proficiency was studied in a group of 100 junior high school males. Two reading conditions, adequate and inadequate, and two racial samples, Negro and Caucasian, were employed. Motor performance was significantly different for the two reading groups but was not for the two racial ones. The findings were discussed in light of current explanations of learning disorders.

Is the Schilder Hand Test Really an Adequate Measure of Cerebral Dominance

D. Bruce Bell, Ph.D., is a research analyst for the Social Security Administration, Washington, D.C. Franklin D. Lewis, Ph.D., is senior psychologist at the Ouachita Regional Counseling and Mental Health Center, Hot Springs, Arkansas. Beverly W. Bell is a social science analyst for the Social and Rehabilitation Service, Washington, D.C. HY DO apparently normal children fail to learn to read? In 1937, S. T. Orton proposed one of the first hypotheses to explain this phenomenon: when a child shows no consistent preference for one side of his body in tasks which require only