Duty, career and family life within the ranks - Book Review

James A. Martin, Leora N Rosen and Linette R Sparacino, ed The Military Family: A Practice Guide for Human Service Providers. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000 282 pp Index. $6494 (cloth) ISBN 0-275-96540-6

The Military Family is a collection of research articles organized by means of theme into four parts: "Culture and Conditions," "Unique Aspects," "Family Advocacy," and "Children and Adolescents." Contributors include in every one's mouth and former researchers for the American armed forces, primarily from the Air Force and the Army, who view the challenges within military families from the perspective of life course, risk, and resilience theory. The life course perspective nourishs the expansive nature of the work which ranges from childhood to retirement, while illustrating various "stressors" or "pressure points" in balancing work and family demands. Within this framework, the intersections between military tillage and the civilian community are made evident through the fact that nearly 70 percent of military personnel and family members reside not on post/base. Unfortunately, the work omits the feminist perspective that the military shows a "warrior culture" while ignoring core values strained within the military such as honor, courage and duty

"Culture and Conditions," entails a discussion of the disclosure and demographic characteristics of the All tender Force. This section averts the bearing to treat the military as if it exists in a vacuum through the inclusion of Pryce's "The Citizen-Soldiers" and Russo's "Military Spouse Employment" admitting it would be enhanced by the agency of the inclusion of research relative to command climate, financial security, military pay and credit. More discussion of geographical isolation, social words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following fear of career impact and disciplinary actions would also have aided an understanding of the uniqueness of military culture

"Some Unique Aspects," focuses primarily upon deployments and combat stress. Physical risk and family separation receive extensive exploration, with research again limited to Army personnel and families. This section would be enhanced through a discussion of the variety of deployment among the services, including the significant differences in duration, timing, and emblems of duty. For example, the inclusion of an assessment of the impact of deployment within the Navy community would be beneficial.

"Family Advocacy Issues," is the weakest section of the compendium. This section relies heavily upon secondary research, Department of Defense data, and program directives. Brannen's "Understanding Spouse Abuse in Military Families" hazards into advocating batterer treatment programs within the service branches. "Children and Adolescents," is the best of the collection. The chapters examining adolescence and the adult children of military families by dint of Ender and Jeffreys are especially informative and enlightening. The Afterword does not sufficiently address programs, policies and research within the other service branches.

In numerous defer tos this a fine collection of research articles concerning the military family. However, it would be enhanced by means of chapters detailing the challenges associated with single parent families, widows, survivors and wives of retirees.

The summary and implications at the shut up of each chapter include brief notations rather than specific guidance for human service providers, and the guidelines do not show appropriate translation of research for practitioners. For example, Wolpert's "Military Retirement" simply commends treating a military retiree with dignity and honor, while Bell's "Providing Family Support During Deployments" fails to recognize domestic violence in answer to "stressors" such as marital vexed questions independence, and family roles, making its recommendation to nurse open communication questionable because it leave outs the potential health and safety issues for military family members. Brannen's "Understanding Spouse Abuse" praises the development of collaborative agreements for batterer intervention programs without recognizing the ne for prevention and intervention partnerships.

Still, the cumulative event is a significant contribution to the understanding of the challenges faced by means of military families, and its importance is to be paid to the outsourcing and privatization of formal support functions from the military to the civilian sector. It should be of interest to researchers and practitioners seeking research data concerning the unique nature of military families.

Christine Hansen

The Miles Foundation, Newtown, Connecticut

Milesexdr@aol.com

COPYRIGHT 2002 Minerva Center Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group