Philippine E-Journals

Military Wives’ Lives: Trepidations and Negotiations of Sharp Curves and Dwindling Roads

Christina G. Juan

 

Abstract:

Knowing the nature of work of military husband, military wives need to embrace and understand the reality of being a military wife that is being far away from the family. This qualitative research aimed to explore the trepidations and negotiations of military wives in dealing with their married life. Specifically it sought to answer the following research questions 1.What are the trepidations in marriage as experienced by the military wives? 2. What are the coping mechanisms of military wives in dealing with the trepidations? To undertake the study, multiple case study approach was used. The cases were six military wives who are married to military officers; whose husbands are currently assigned in the field serving the different branches of service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines regardless of rank of the husband and who do not have a regular home visitation. Based on the revelations of the six participants, the following are the trepidations found in the study: nature of work of their military husbands; the risk they encounter and deployment; temptation such as womanizing and corruption. The negotiations of military wives consist of spiritual, social support and diversion activities. Recommendations for the research include: a seminar may be conducted to military wives, a literature may be provided for additional learning on the nature of work of military husbands and possible coping mechanisms that can be employed by military wives in dealing with issues and concern that might arise during married life; military wives will be more willing to participate to different studies related to military marriages and the research output will be utilized as a literature in the future for researches regarding military marriages.