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Examining the academic and grey literature on support to UK Service leaver families, the report finds that:

There was a shortage of UK literature on transition into civilian life.

• Few studies were identified examining the transition from military to civilian life in the UK.
• The literature on veterans and their families was focused mainly on the US experience, and the extent to which these findings apply in the UK context is not clear.
• Source material was found to primarily focus on Service life, and especially on deployments.

Definitional gaps make comparisons challenging.

• The available literature appeared to lack a common definition of key terms.
• While the review aimed to discern whether sources were focused on 'Service life only', 'post-Service life only' or on 'both Service and post-Service life', ambiguous definitions of key terms including 'reintegration', 'transition' and 'veteran' meant that it was difficult to categorise this definitively.

The literature was characterised by a heavy health focus and with gaps across all four areas.

• The review highlighted a heavy emphasis on health-related literature, with a particular focus on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Intimate Partner Violence, and combat-related trauma.
• However, the literature was lacking in the four review areas of interest: family engagement, family breakdown, housing support and spousal employment.
• Key evidence gaps included a shortage of literature on 'non-traditional families', as well as limited research on the impact of Service on family stability more broadly.