The mental health of military children: A review

Abstract

There is a paucity of research exploring the mental health of British military children. This article seeks to answer the question: what is the stress experience of British military children whose parent(s) are serving in Germany? Methods included a critical literature review and reflections from my own practice as a community psychiatric nurse. It was found that military children are presented with a number of situations and stressors associated with and unique to their parent's job. Increased stress among military children is a potential trigger for the development of mental health problems. Key issues identified included: deployment, frequent relocation and regular changes of schools. It can be concluded that current research tends to focus on the stress and coping of children during operational deployment and not on the day-to-day stresses. Further research is needed into the impacts of recurrent separations, frequent relocations, regular changes of schools, potential injury or fatality of parent, disruption to friendships, social networks and activities.