U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences—Basic research (DOD)

This conceptual model for explaining the factors and processes that underlie family adaptation in the Army relies heavily upon two traditions: the "Double ABMs model of family stress and adaptation and the "Person-Environment Fit" model. The new model has three major parts: the environmental system, the personal system, and family adaptation. This model provides a framework for the identification, definition, and measurement of conceptual domains for addressing the role of family factors in retention, readiness, and sense of community. The model identifies factors which buffer and moderate role demands and their consequences at the personal, family, community, and Army levels of analysis. It theoreti lly grounds the research on role demands and their link to family adaptation, discusses and nominally defines conceptual domains and subdimensions in the model, and specifies a number of propositions which are derived from the model for empirical grounding, specification, and testing. Such conceptual clarification and modeling are precursor steps to the empirical specification of testable models, rich with operational measures and testable research hypotheses which are responsive to project objectives. This proposed model provides important structure for directing the next phase of project activities, especially the design of the survey instruments for the field investigation. (Author/ABL) ***************************0s ***** ********** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Technical Report 880 ring The Family Adaptation Model: viD A Life Course Perspective Ctt Gary L. Bowen Cft . School of Social Work The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill