Author Description

The Army spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on soldier and family support or quality of life (QOL) programs intended to ease the stress of military life and thereby enhance well-being, improve readiness, and sustain recruiting and retention. However, research in support of these programs to determine needs, access, and effectiveness is fragmented, duplicative, and at times lacking in quality or depth of analysis. The Army leadership wants to develop a research agenda to inform the Army of the QOL needs of soldiers and families, help gauge the success of programs, improve coordination of research efforts, and determine how best to allocate resources to achieve its objectives. This analysis concludes that the Army currently lacks a clear awareness of relevant research on soldier and family QOL, and it also lacks the institutional mechanisms and resources to systematically collect and synthesize data and analysis to inform decisionmaking. Furthermore, both domain-specific research and a broader, more holistic understanding of QOL-to put domain-specific research in context-are critical. As a first step, we recommend that the Army develop an explicitly agreed-upon lexicon, outcomes, and metrics to identify and develop relevant research to inform intra- and interorganizational discussions and decisionmaking on QOL. The Army should also consider adopting a comprehensive approach to needs assessment to develop a holistic picture of support service gaps and their relative importance to well-being.