Over 50 percent of the military's active duty members are married. A large percentage of military families include children under the age of six. Military families of enlisted men and women play supportive roles within the culture of the military.

The Department of Defense, recognizing the burden that military families face especially in the wake of increased stop loss actions, provide military families with a host of web links offering resources for quality of life issues ranging from resale of real estate property to spousal employment locator services.

As with civilian society, there still exists a need for spouses of military families to work outside the home to offset costs of living. Military families move twice as much as non-military families, possibly increasing family stress upon young children and spouses as they adjust to deployments and new environments.

During the Clinton administration, the Department of Defense held its first ever Military Family Forum. The event hosted nearly 100 military families providing them with an opportunity to address their concerns directly to Defense Secretary William Cohen and his wife. At the forum, military families spoke of quality of life issues from leaky roofs to health insurance. It is not clear, if these forums, begun the last year of President Clinton's second term in office, continued during the remainder of the Clinton administration or if they continued during the two terms of Bush Administration.