Our Strength in Families (OSiF): A Web-based Interactive Coping Skill and Resiliency Program for Military Families

Military personnel increasingly face deployments and prolonged separations from partners and families. Deployments have a profound effect on the loved ones of military personnel and often result in problems in intimate and family relationships. In turn, these problems can contribute to lower morale and motivation, poorer performance, lost work days, higher disability rates, decreased readiness, and declining reenlistment. This project will build on available knowledge and existing interventions to develop an interactive Web-based relationship-enhancement psychoeducational resource for couples experiencing deployments. This program, Our Strength in Families (OSiF), will draw on existing theoretical and empirical work, as well as new information to be gathered from focus groups with members of the target population, interviews with leading scientists and experts, and concept mapping with key stakeholders during Phase I. Content will be synthesized, the underlying technology will be developed, and an initial test of usability will be conducted during the Phase I Option period. OSiF will incorporate features demonstrated to improve relationship functioning among couples experiencing military deployments. OSiF has several advantages relative to available interventions, in particular, its interactivity and individual tailoring of content, its theoretically-driven, integrative approach, its enhanced accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use.