Military Divorce Rate Leveling Off: Pentagon Report

The Pentagon has shared some good news, for a change:

The government agency has released statistics showing that, after rising consistently over the past five years, the overall military divorce rate plateaued in 2010.

The military divorce rate increased from 2.6 percent in 2001 (the start of Operation Enduring Freedom) to 3.6 in 2009--a figure that has held steady throughout 2010.

The reason for the leveling off, say officials? Department of Defense programs designed to help military spouses deal with the stresses of deployment.

Is the plateau part of a downward trend? Probably not, says Benjamin Karney, a professor at UCLA who has studied marriage with the RAND Corporation for the Department of Defense:

"This doesn't say it's stopped moving. When you see gradual decreases year to year, yes that's a trend. But a stop for one year? We can't say that's a trend."

Putting a further damper on the good news: the divorce rate in subgroups like Marines, and Airmen, and female servicemembers did increase by small measures, as in years past.

Comments

[Shelly Santiago]

10:19 AM on 11/21/2010

My husband was in the Army until March. I have seen so many people divorce, and many people have worked on their marriages. One of the big reasons military families break up is due to the stress put on the relationship by deployments. I recall telling my husband I felt like I was his girlfriend, and the Army was his wife. In many ways it can make the person left behind feel like they are married to a ghost. Some women deal with it by talking to others, going to church, and I have also seen others drink. The truth is being a military spouse is hard on the wife, but the situation is harder on the children. I had my writings to keep my busy, and I worked when we were stationed at Bliss. Yet, that was towards the end of my husband's career with the military because of his back. I'm glad we are no longer in because it hurt my children. We have a real problem with the military familiy. We have mental health people in our child care centers trying to help our children cope with the stress of being in the military family. I'm glad to see at least the divorce rate is going down, but now it's time to think about reconnecting the children to their rightful place in the family.

[Majorbob53]

08:06 AM on 11/20/2010

One factor in military divorces (and I've seen this 1st hand with some friends) is the "home coming." The military member has been gone for a year. The spouse had to run the household alone and most times does it exceptionally well. The military member comes back and expects things to go to "normal" overnight. Some times there is resentment seing that the spouse has done it all without him/her. Deployments are tough regardless. I personally found that the shorter repeated absences were worse; for example: gone for 90 days, back for 3 weeks; gone for 120 days, back for a week; gone for 6 months; back for 3 months etc. Just my opinion and i'm certain there are other military folks who would disagree with me.

[Les Burns]

04:44 PM on 11/19/2010

Hmmmm...I wonder why ALL of these soldiers are divorcing their state-side spouses while they are serving overseas possibly avoiding getting blown to bits!?!?! The heck with vows, eh?

[am10]

02:10 PM on 11/20/2010

Happens the other way around. Many soldier's spouses leave while they are on deployment an the soldier comes home to an empty home and cleaned out bank accounts. They can't do anything about it while they're away and the spouses take advantage of it.

[Les Burns]

02:30 PM on 11/20/2010

I know I was being facetious...I agree with you. Where is the devotion to ones VOWS. In most cases the spouses knew they were service men when they married them

[PowerPridePinstripes]

03:45 PM on 11/19/2010

Well those of us in uniform know how fast some of military folks get married. so many basic training or tech school marriages occur it's not even funny. Or, getting married so your pay check will increase because you have a dependent and can get base housing... all these tricks. So, its so surprise when you see mil folks who've been married, divorced, married... it's very common.

But, I will also admit that I've seen mil couples who withstood the test and trials and have remained committed to one another in holy matrimony... ............

[rextrek]

04:00 PM on 11/19/2010

FYI - Of course NO one mentions gay/lesbian soldiers......and thier partners (can't say spouses, as being married,or getting married.....so far would STILL BE "Telling") - like straight people would ever put up with that BS..no they wouldn't. ...and of course the heteros TAKING FULL advantage of ALL the Benefits the Military offers to them and thier families...while gay /lesbians and thier families/children are left OUT of ALL of it....and don't even get me started with Notification of Death & tyhe benefits that that entails.

[am10]

02:12 PM on 11/20/2010

Yeah, when I hear about soldiers on food stamps and then read that they got married at eighteen and started having kids right away, well duh. I've also heard that some girls get married so they can live off base.