Exploring The Emotional Experiences of Indian Military Wives During Multiple and Prolonged Deployment/ Field Area Posting Induced Separation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the emotions experienced by Indian military wives during deployment/ field posting induced separation and to gain insight into how they made sense of this experience. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 military wives whose husbands were deployed field areas, in order to get a deeper understanding of their lives. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed emotional distancing and feelings of anxiety, tension, anger, guilt, ambiguity through different phases of deployment. Military wives made use of several digressive meaning making methods like acceptance, faith in God and destiny, drawing comparisons and several other ways, to make sense of multiple and prolonged separation experience.