Written by: Keith G. Tidball, PhD and Brianna Petracca
Military life is synonymous with change. Military family practitioners know that, for service members and their families, transitions are a constant companion. From relocations to deployments, the military lifestyle demands adaptability, resilience, and a strong support system. Understanding these transitions and learning how to navigate them can make all the difference in maintaining family cohesion and individual well-being.
Perhaps the most important thing that practitioners can encourage for military families in transition is a flexible, resilient mindset. Are service members and their families encouraged to be proactive or reactive? In a nutshell, a reactive posture features waiting for things or events to collide with us, while a proactive posture anticipates incoming events and moves with nimbleness, and a flexible, blending action.
Action Orientation
Going deeper, there is a lot of research on both proactive psychology and reactive psychology. Proactive behavior psychology research investigates how people’s belief that they can shape their contexts, or proactive mindset, relates to goal affordances. For example, some studies have examined how proactivity levels align with people perceiving more goal opportunities in roles. Proactive behavior involves taking control of a situation and making early changes before a problem occurs. For example, proactive cognitive control involves selecting goal-relevant information before a cognitively demanding event and maintaining it for as long as needed.
Reactive behavior psychology research investigates the other side of the coin. Reactive behavior involves reacting to a situation or participant, rather than taking the initiative to solve a problem. For example, reactive cognitive control is only activated after a cognitively demanding event has occurred. The human brain uses both proactive and reactive systems to navigate daily life and perform thinking tasks.
Beyond proactive and reactive psychology is the important distinction between action orientation and state orientation. According to Ryan Sheridan, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP-BC) with a doctorate in nursing:
The distinction between action and state orientation is a pivotal aspect of our personality that influences not just our decisions but our entire approach to life’s ups and downs. Action-oriented individuals harness a proactive approach to challenges. They are typically decisive, harnessing a drive even under pressure, which not only propels them towards their goals but also ensures these goals resonate deeply with their personal ethics and inner desires. This intrinsic alignment facilitates profound personal satisfaction and success (Sheridan, n.d.).
On the other side, Ryan explains:
State-oriented individuals might find themselves in a reactive and emotional stance more often than not. They may struggle with decision making, frequently feeling stalled or overwhelmed by external pressures, internal conflicts, or emotional chaos. This can lead to a disconnection from their true goals, as they might find themselves chasing aspirations that do not align with their core values or fulfill their deeper needs. The consequence is often a life filled with pursuits that feel less meaningful, which may impact overall happiness and satisfaction (Sheridan, n.d.).
These mindsets influence the ways in which military families experience transitions. In the next few paragraphs, we will review what we mean by particularly military family transitions, and then we will describe a relatively new, action-oriented, proactive program and approach for addressing them.
Understanding Military Family Transitions
“Transitions are times of both opportunity and vulnerability characterized by adjustments to cultural shifts that require management of relationships and social identity” (Pedlar, Thompson & Castro, 2019, p. 25). Developing an asset-based outlook, that focuses on the strengths individuals bring to transitions, rather than a deficit-based outlook, focused on problems or weaknesses, and a more proactive rather than reactive approach is a key predictor in successfully navigating the unique set of challenges military families face. There are four main “buckets” of uniquely military family transitions.
- Joining the Military: Enlistment or commission into the military can be challenging for families and may result in uncertainty and breaks in routine, which can cause family members to experience high anxiety, depression, and even Post Traumatic Stress and long-term mental health and wellness injuries.
- Permanent Change of Station (PCS): A PCS involves relocating to a new duty station, which can occur every few years for service members and their families. This move often entails finding new housing, schools, jobs, and community resources. While it can be exciting to explore new places, it also comes with the challenge of leaving behind familiar environments and support systems.
- Deployments and Training: Deployments and extended training periods require the service member to be away from home and family for months at a time. This separation can be tough on families, especially those with young children. Managing everyday responsibilities alone and coping with the emotional stress of absence are significant hurdles.
- Separation or Retirement: Leaving the military, whether through retirement or separation, is a major transition. This period involves adjusting to a new identity, career changes, and often, a new living situation. Recently separated or retired service members and their families might face challenges in finding employment, accessing benefits, and integrating into civilian communities.
Military families must constantly adjust to changes, balancing everyday life events with the additional pressures of relocations, separation from the military, and reintegration. This requires an extraordinary level of adaptability and resilience that service providers can play a pivotal role in developing. A helpful framework developed by the Military Spouse Transition Program, or “MySTeP” (a part of the Spouse Education and Career Opportunities – or SECO – program at DoD) is useful for practitioners dealing with “the four buckets” described above. The information, tools and programs highlighted in MySTeP connect military spouses with resources to help them successfully navigate military life at every stage of their service member’s career. MySTeP encompasses three broad categories of transition in a present-tense, action orientation configuration that is conducive to encouraging asset based, proactive frames for dealing with transitions. They are “Stepping In,” “Stepping Through,” and “Stepping Beyond.” The purpose of these “steps” for the MySTeP program is to organize content for military spouses along a chronological timeline. Though this “stepping” configuration was initially designed for military spouses to prepare them for life after their service member leaves the military, it is applicable across the military family transitions community.
Stepping In is a beginning. Functionally, this step in the MySTeP approach is aimed at military spouses who have recently joined the military community and are still learning what tools, programs and benefits are available through the military. From the standpoint of an asset-based outlook and a proactive approach to transitions, this step promotes curiosity, information gathering, planning, and even a dash of adventure, representing an action-oriented philosophy of transition.
Stepping Through is for military spouses who are ready to expand their knowledge and grow their personal and professional networks. Functionally, this step dives deeper into the resources and programs available to help military spouses meet their personal, educational and career goals. From the standpoint of an asset-based outlook and a proactive approach to transitions, this step heightens goal setting, performance tracking, and achievement, all hallmarks of resilience and typifying an action-oriented philosophy of transition.
Stepping Beyond is for military spouses whose service member is actively preparing for a transition to civilian life. Functionally, this step helps military families identify the challenges in their transition process and make an informed transition plan to overcome any potential obstacles. Pre-transition topics include post-military benefits, health care, finances, and transition training. From the standpoint of an asset-based outlook and a proactive approach to transitions, this step encourages a focus on wins, accomplishment, encouragement, and considering each day ahead as a new opportunity for adventure, fulfillment, and a sense of well-being.
Conclusion
Military family transitions, while challenging, offer opportunities for growth and resilience. Understanding and applying the principles of action vs. state orientation can profoundly influence how we help military families set goals and what they achieve. By assisting military family members to proactively align their goals with their deepest values and motivations, we help them not only achieve what they set out to do but do so in a way that brings genuine joy and fulfillment. This alignment is the essence of living a purposeful and contented life. By encouraging military family members to embrace flexibility, by assisting them tap into community capacity through building strong support networks, and by making it easy for them to find and utilize available resources, we can enhance military families’ ability to navigate these changes successfully.
One of the most crucial things practitioners can encourage for military families during transitions is the right mindset. Are military families being encouraged to be proactive, optimistic, and asset-based? At OneOp we’re dedicated to fostering this approach by taking cues from the MySTeP action-oriented method. We believe that adopting this action-oriented mindset is key to successfully navigating transitions, and we’re eager to continue this conversation.
In our next blog post, we explore a fifth bucket of transitions not covered here. This bucket is the one that contains the many transitions that all families experience (births, deaths, weddings, divorces, etc.), with a special focus on the unique context and characteristics of these common transitions when experienced by military families.
References:
Mäki-Marttunen, V., Hagen, T., & Espeseth, T. (2019). Proactive and reactive modes of cognitive control can operate independently and simultaneously. Acta Psychologica, 199, 102891. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102891
Benson-Greenwald, T. M., & Diekman, A. B. (2022). In the Mindset of Opportunity: Proactive Mindset, Perceived Opportunities, and Role Attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48(12), 1667-1681. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211051488
Hamer, M. (2013). Psychophysiologic Reactivity. In M. D. Gellman & J. R. Turner (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine (pp. 1567-1568). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_828
Sheridan, R. (n.d.). Embracing your inner drive: The power of action-oriented goals. Proactive Psychiatry. https://www.proactivepsychiatry.com/post/embracing-your-inner drive-the-power-of-action-oriented-goals
