ATHENS, Ga. — A new study by the University of Georgia shows how financial stress can impact relationships in military families.
According to the research, financial anxiety in service member couples can negatively affect the pair, but working together to handle that anxiety can make things better.
“Relationships and finances — these two go hand in hand. When you ask people, ‘What’s the biggest stressor in your life?’ Chances are they’re going to say money, relationships or both,” Catherine Walker O’Neal, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Science, said. “They’re both challenging, but that intersection, especially for military families, can be even more of a challenge.”
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The UGA study said that there are a variety of stressors that are unique to military families, and a lot of the mare financial.
From moving frequently to minimal notice, base transfers and reassignments in the service can leave military families “scrambling to find a good deal on a home. Constant move also restrict job access and mobility for the other partner.”
On top of that, “moving isn’t cheap,” UGA said.
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Using data from more than 1,300 service member couples, UGA found financial anxiety had a direct impact on how the couples viewed their relationships.
“Finances and relationships are one of those things where when it’s going well, it’s going so well. But when it starts to go poorly, it can become challenging for couples very quickly," Clairee Peterson, researcher in Human Development and Family Science and corresponding author of the study, said.
UGA also found that in cases where just one half of a couple handled the finances, and the two didn’t fully agree on budgeting, relationships were further strained.
The university said that can cause the financial stress to bleed over into the overall relationship.
"couples who were in alignment on their spending plan tended to be better off and their relationship was not as negatively impacted compared to other couples that were also facing financial anxiety," UGA said. “This indicates that coming together to agree on how to manage finances can help avoid the bleed from financial anxiety to poor relationship outcomes.”
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