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Abstract
The military lifestyle of extended trainings and deployments creates a need to clearly define eachpartners roles and responsibilities (i.e., boundary ambiguity) after each departure and reunion.Previous researchers have discovered the less boundary ambiguity that occurs when anindividual enters into or departs the family system, the less likely the family will experiencestrain or crisis. One difficult area of boundary definition is finances, as couples tend to avoidtalking about money, which could lead to higher rates of financial boundary ambiguity. Thisstudy applied the Contextual Model of Family Stress Theory to examine financial boundaryambiguity and its impact on marital satisfaction in the post-deployment stage. The actor-partnerinterdependence model was employed using structural equation modeling in a theory-drivenexploration of the impact of financial ambiguity. It was hypothesized (and results support) thatmore resources (flexibility and communication) are related to less financial ambiguity, andfinancial ambiguity is inversely related to marital quality. Theoretical, clinical, and researchimplications are examined based on the findings to explore factors that may decrease thelikelihood of financial boundary ambiguity in military couples and, potentially, any coupleexperiencing transitions.