The Impact of Parental Operational Stress Injury on Child Mental Health and Well-Being: A Scoping Review

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecognizing the impact of parental mental health on child development, the purpose of this scoping review was to identify and synthesize the research literature describing the impact of parental operational stress injury (OSI) on children and youth from military and veteran families. Arksey and O'Malley's 2005 guidelines for conducting scoping reviews were followed. A total of 18 separate databases were searched, in addition to three university-based discovery platforms. From this search, 506 potential sources were identified; 64 proceeded to full data extraction and analysis. This study identified two significant themes in the current literature. First, there are multiple ways in which parental OSIs can impact children and youth. Families need to renegotiate parenting roles and responsibilities, experience changes in spousal relationships that can cascade into parenting, and face shifting family dynamics. In addition, children and youth can experience secondary traumatization, be at risk for child maltreatment, and manifest general impacts on their mental health and development. Second, responding to the impacts through collaboration and innovation. Future directions include informing research with the voices of all members of the family. Knowledge translation strategies are necessary for collaboration across all areas to support this population.