HIGHLIGHTS
- The Millennium Cohort Study has played a critical role in advancing military health and readiness
- Abt delivers expert research design, analysis, and data insights for the study
- Evidence informs policies that strengthen resilience in military families
PROJECT
Military Families Research Services
The Challenge
Military families face distinct stresses that can affect health, readiness, and resilience. The Department of Defense (DoD) needs robust, longitudinal research to understand these challenges, identify trends, and inform policies that strengthen support systems for service members and their loved ones.
The Millennium Cohort Family Study, part of the DoD’s broader Millennium Cohort Program, is the only DoD-wide longitudinal study focused specifically on military families. Led by the Naval Health Research Center and supported by the Defense Health Agency, the study engages military spouses and service members as participants and works with researchers to generate evidence that informs readiness and family well-being.
The Approach
Since 2009, Abt Global has been a key research partner to the Naval Health Research Center on the Millennium Cohort Family Study. The study’s scope and complexity require not only specialized subject matter expertise in military family health but also advanced research design, data collection, and statistical analysis capabilities that meet the highest scientific standards. Abt delivers all of these, providing end-to-end research expertise, including literature reviews, survey design and weighting, data quality assessment, non-response analyses, hypothesis testing, and manuscript development. We collaborate closely with NHRC scientists to address DoD and stakeholder priorities, applying rigorous statistical methods to large-scale survey data from the Study.
The Results
Abt’s contributions have informed evidence-based policy recommendations that enhance military health systems and programs addressing substance use, personal safety, mental and behavioral health, education, and childcare. By translating complex data into actionable insights, we help DoD identify strategies to strengthen family resilience over time. Our work has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications, including:
- The Millennium Cohort Family Study: A prospective evaluation of the health and well‐being of military service members and their families: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6878226/
- Assessing and adjusting for non-response in the Millennium Cohort Family Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28129735/
- Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in United States military spouses: the millennium cohort family study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29745445/
- Engaging military couples in marital research: does requesting referrals from service members to recruit their spouses introduce sample bias?: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30355317/
- Mental health of children of deployed and nondeployed US military service members: The Millennium Cohort Family Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30067522/
- Association of military life experiences and health indicators among military spouses: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31718613/
- Military life stressors, family communication and satisfaction: Associations with children’s psychosocial outcomes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32318230/
- Patterns of strengths in US military couples: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01593-4
- High-risk and long-term opioid prescribing to military spouses in the Millennium Cohort Family Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32696969/
- Demographic Variation in Military Life Stress and Perceived Support Among Military Spouses: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33499525/
- Associations between spouse and service member prescriptions for high-risk and long-term opioids: A dyadic study. Addictive Behaviors Reports: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34189246/
- Families serve too: military spouse well-being after separation from active-duty service: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35316104/
- Longitudinal patterns of military spousal alcohol consumption: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Family Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35838432/
- Partner effects: Analyzing service member and spouse drinking over time: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37059344/
- Longitudinal Association of Health Behaviors and Health-Related Quality of Life with Military Spouse Readiness: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38762717/
These findings are helping military leaders, health professionals, and policymakers better understand and respond to the evolving needs of military families.