"Up-Armoring" At-Risk Military Couples: A Stepped Approach to Early Intervention and Strengthening of Military Families

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Couples Therapy; Military Family

• Registration Number: NCT06948877
• Lead Sponsor: Wright State University

Brief Summary

The study tested whether giving young, partnered military service members access to an online relationship help website would help prevent future relationship problems compared to partnered service member who did not have access to the website

Detailed Description

This study tested whether access to a self-directed, online couple intervention offered preventively lessened the occurrence of future negative relationship outcomes (i.e., relationship dysfunction, infidelity, intimate partner violence (IPV) for partnered service members in comparison to the usual resources for relationship assistance in the military. Participants were active-duty military in a committed romantic relationship of at least 6-months duration (N = 581; 37.2% married) who had recently completed basic military training and were transitioning into technical training to learn a specific job skill set. Participants were randomly assigned by in-processing week to the intervention or the control condition. The intervention effect was modeled using both Intent to Treat (ITT) and Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE) approaches.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-10-19
• Primary Completion: 2024-09-30
• Study Completion: 2024-09-30
• Status Verified: 2025-04
• Study First Submitted: 2025-04-21
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-04-21
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-21
• Study First Posted: 2025-04-29
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 581

Inclusion Criteria

• To be included in the study, participants had to be: (a) in a committed romantic relationship for at least six months and (b) on active duty (not Guard or Reserve).

Exclusion Criteria

• Participants with prior military service (i.e., not new to the military who were retraining into a different career field) were excluded.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Brief (MSI-B; Whisman et al., 2009)	six months	The MSI-B is a true-false, self-report measure of relationship distress derived from the full The MSI-B is a true-false, self-report measure of relationship distress derived from the full True-false, self-report measure of relationship distress
Family Maltreatment measure (Heyman et al., 2021)	six months	Whether the participant or partner had engaged in intimate partner violence
Infidelity	six months	Whether the participant or partner had been intimate with non-partner

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Keesler Air Force Base; 🇺🇸 Biloxi, Mississippi, United States