Relational turbulence among military couples after reunion following deployment

Reintegration following deployment is a pivotal time for returning service members and at-home partners. We test logic derived from the relational turbulence model about depressive symptoms, relational uncertainty, and interference from a partner as predictors of people's appraisals of turmoil during the post-deployment transition. Participants were 118 military couples who completed an online questionnaire once per month for the first 3 months after homecoming. Multilevel models predicting people's appraisals of turmoil revealed (a) actor and partner effects of depressive symptoms, (b) actor effects of relational uncertainty, and (c) actor effects of interference from a partner that were apparent beyond people's appraisals of turmoil during the previous month. These findings advance both theory and practice.