October 11, 2004

Home 6 months, 209th faces family, employment issues

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers at Purdue University are at the halfway point of a research project with the goal of understanding the family and employment pressures faced by members of the Lafayette-based 209th Quartermaster Company, which on Thursday (Oct. 14) will celebrate the six-month anniversary of its return from Iraq.

"While reunions are happy occasions, the process of coming home to families and jobs is a longer and more complicated process," said Shelley MacDermid, co-director of Purdue's Military Family Research Institute, who is directing the one-year study, "Coming Home: The 209th and Their Families."

MacDermid, who is a professor of child development and family studies, and her research team are interviewing 209th Company reservists and their family members. The interview process will continue for a year after the 209th's return from Iraq.

"We're looking at how the reservists are doing back with their families and jobs and how life has changed for them," she said. The study also will identify resources that help keep families resilient through the sometimes difficult transition process.

Howard Weiss, co-director of the institute and a professor of psychological sciences, is studying employment issues for members of the 209th.

"There are logistical issues for the returning reservists," he said. "An employer may guarantee a job for a returning reservist, but it may not be the job the reservist had before he or she was deployed.

"Then there are psychological issues for the returning reservist, whose emotional state stemming from war experiences can serve as a distraction at work."

Weiss said a successful transition from the battlefield to the homefront demands "the right kinds of social support both in the family and the workplace."

The Military Family Research Institute is an interdisciplinary research program housed at Purdue and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Military Community and Family Policy. The MFRI Web site .

CONTACT: MacDermid, (765) 423-2266, shelley@purdue.edu; Howard Weiss, (765) 494-6227, weiss@psych.purdue.edu; Samantha Lucy, MFRI communications coordinator, (765) 423-2266, slucy@purdue.edu

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