Marital satisfaction continues to decrease before, during and after deployments, a 2008 research study in Psychological Report has found. Yet some military couples remain resilient.

Sandra Stith, professor of family studies and human services, is working with the United States Air Force Family Advocacy Program to shed light on the correlation between resiliency and deployment.

Focusing on Air Force couples, Stith, along with Jared Anderson, assistant professor also in Family Studies, and several graduate students, look to gather examples, ideas and advice on how some couples cope through hardships of the deployment process.

"A lot of the research we found focuses on the negative effects of deployment," Stith said.

Stith also said she hopes to provide more positive research to help Air Force couples who struggle with their relationships through deployments.

The study will include interviews with 25 couples who volunteer as "expert" couples – those who remain resilient through deployments – from five different Air Force bases around the country. After the information is gathered, the team will try to find common themes on what couples said made a difference.

"One of the things we would expect to see would be good communication, preparation and ways couples maintain good communication," she said.

Using the gathered information, Stith said the USAF Advocacy Program, which is also funding the project, would like to provide tools, such as DVDs, that show how couples positively work through the deployment stages as well as have some of the "expert" couples speak about their experiences.

Anderson said though their team can research and read literature on these topics, the military couples, who are living it, can provide their experiences and wisdom to further educate and help other couples. Anderson is working on a similar research project for the Kansas Army National Guard.

Yvonne Amanor-Boadu, a research associate in family studies working with Stith and Anderson on the project, said she thinks these personal experiences will be helpful to other couples.

"It has a different kind of impact hearing other people's stories," she said.

Some military bases provide couples with resources like checklists or steps that help make the deployment process easier. Other bases have support groups like the Family Life Consultants at Fort Riley. "Sesame Street" even made a DVD to help children cope with a parent's deployment.

Stith said many of these resources focus on children, adolescents and individuals, and not on couples.

Some of the obstacles Stith said she anticipates are finding people who are willing to volunteer and talk about their experiences. The team also will be traveling to different bases meaning said time and money may be lost due to appointments being cancelled or changed.

Stith has been working with the advocacy program for more than 10 years and has worked with military couples before, primarily in the area of domestic violence.

The team awaits review and approval of its proposal from K-State's Institutional Review Board and the Air Force Review Board and plan to begin interviews in January.