Military Children Research Articles

Scientific Studies of Social Impact on Military Children's Parenting Problems

Frequent moves have a considerable impact on military children. It erects the social, educational, and emotional development of these children. Sometimes officers and kids are living in Dhaka. The lack of accommodation facilities in the posted area and the regular posting of military personnel are interesting for the children. It enforces staying with 'Single Parent' in the home town, villages, and some cases in the capital city, Dhaka. Few steps were taken to address it in the recent past by escalating. Facilities like increasing out leaving in various garrisons, increasing the accommodation facilities, and establishing new educational institutions are now mandatory. It is so that the Army children can stay with their parents. However, these amenities could not fulfill the requirements of all army personnel. Social support through parental care may not always be possible, but organizational support can augment child care and needs. When the individual ignores, the organization or nation can act as caregivers. Therefore, the research should determine the current system's cognitive outcome to prepare the future generation.

Recognize and Support Caregiving Youth in Your Care.

Recognize and Support Caregiving Youth in Your Care.

Predictors of missed school days among military connected families: A feasibility study.

There is a paucity of research specific to military children's health, especially those with special needs. This may be partly attributed to the difficulty in accessing military connected families as a population. Yet, given the recognized importance of military connected families to the national security agenda, a need exists for studies to explore factors underlying child and family health. We sought to identify factors among a sample of military children with special health care needs (CSHCN) predictive of missed school days, a commonly used measure of health and one used by NPs to monitor chronic conditions management success. We used a secondary data analysis design and multivariable logistic regression with a subsample of military connected families from the National Survey of CSHCN identified by their reported insurance type. We identified 1,656 military CSHCN. According to the adjusted model, hours of care per week, family work hours change, and activity limitations for the child were positive predictors of ≥4 missed school days per year. Our models identified important predictors of missed school days among military children that may inform assessments, interventions, and referrals by nurse practitioners caring for them. We identified a robust sample of military CSHCN from the National Survey of CSHCN by using self-reported insurance, a novel and simple approach to conducting a focused study of this population. Although feasible, this sampling approach was not without limitations. We advocate for including military connected families within sampling frameworks of national surveys to ensure that studies with this critical and unique population continue.

Approccio progettuale nel sostegno sociale e psicologico dei figli dei militari

The article defines the essence of the concept of "social and psychological support of children of military personnel" as a set of measures and support aimed at ensuring the psychological and social well-being of children whose parents are involved in military service or participate in military operations. It is noted that the main components of socio-psychological support for children of military personnel are: psychological support - providing professional psychological assistance to children to manage stress, anxiety and other emotional challenges related to the military service of their father or mother; social integration – assistance in the integration of children in the school environment and community, provision of opportunities for participation in social events; education and training - ensuring access to quality education, even in cases of permanent changes of residence due to relocation; medical support – provision of medical assistance and psychotherapeutic support for children and their families; promotion of physical and mental development of children through special programs and activities; providing support and counseling to parents on effective ways of interacting with children in the conditions of military service; creation of conditions for stability and safety in the lives of children of military personnel. It is justified that the project approach in the socio-psychological support of children of military personnel should be considered as a systematic method of work aimed at the development of specific projects aimed at improving the socio-psychological condition of children. The domestic experience was studied, which shows that from 2022, the project approach in providing socio-psychological assistance to the families of military personnel is actively spreading in Ukraine, in particular, the project «Psychosocial support service for families of military personnel» of the Public Movement «Women's Power of Ukraine» is being implemented; volunteer project «How are you, brother?»; it is planned to implement a number of projects of relevant Ministries and departments within the framework of the implementation of the All-Ukrainian mental health program. The study and generalization of the best foreign experience of socio-psychological support for children of military personnel shows that the most effective work is carried out in such countries as the USA, Great Britain, and Israel. In the USA, a project is being implemented specifically for the socio-psychological support of military families - Families OverComing Under Stress (Project FOCUS). The non-profit organization Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) implements ongoing projects for children of military personnel in the USA. In the UK there are organizations that implement projects to support military families, including psychological and social support, such as the Royal British Legion, SSAFA, Army Families Federation, RAF Families Federation, Naval Families Federation. Israel has a system of social services that provides psychological and social support for children of military personnel and their families, and counseling centers provide counseling, psychotherapy, and support services in important life situations.

Military mothering, responsibility, and children’s outdoor risky play: “I do not want my children to be afraid to try things”

Mothers more than fathers are discursively produced as responsible for children’s safety. Wives of members in combat arms occupations in the military may have feelings of responsibility for their children’s safety that are shaped through their involvement in military culture. In this research, we examined the feelings of responsibility mothers partnered with members in combat arms occupations have for their children’s safety during outdoor risky play. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 mothers and used poststructural feminist theory and feminist methodologies. Our findings indicate military mothers feel responsible for their children’s safety during outdoor risky play, but they resist societal pressures to restrict it. Some of the mothers believed there is an increased pressure on women more than men to provide care for their children, and some expressed that being part of a military culture shaped their feelings of responsibility.

Military Children: Unique Risks for Mental Health and Wellbeing and Implications for School-Based Social Work Support

ABSTRACT Children in military families experience a unique combination of stressors associated with military life that may affect every stage of their lives, including their mental health, as well as disrupt their schooling and consequent social, emotional, and academic development. A review of the key issues faced by children is presented including the challenges in providing school-based social work support. A case vignette is used to illustrate how an ecological framework can address many of the unique aspects of military life that affect children, such as mobility, multiple deployments, recent relocation, mental health and wellbeing, family stress, and their impact on social, emotional, and academic outcomes.

‘School is everywhere’? British military children, ‘turbulence’ and the meanings of post-war mobility

ABSTRACT This article traces the emergence of the term ‘turbulence’ to describe the educational disruption experienced by military children after 1945. It asks why the term came to dominate professional discussion of military education so much from the late 1960s onwards and the wider tensions it exposed in post-war Britain: between welfare and warfare; ‘tradition’ and progressiveness; individuals and communities; families and institutions. Moreover, this article argues that childhood mobility in the late twentieth century was at times refracted through assumptions about class and rank, as well as issues such as immigration and intelligence. Finally, this article uses oral history interviews to reflect on how turbulence itself became part of the life stories of many former service children, offering ‘composure’, explanation and even a community through which to understand their sometimes-disrupted education and childhoods.

Introduction: Resilience in Military Families

Psychological health of military families is essential to ensuring the retention and readiness of military personnel. Despite the negative impact of military life related stressors on health and well-being of military families, contemporary research shows that families remain resilient. The definition and operationalization of resilience have recently received considerable attention in North American research, highlighting the importance of the resilience construct for military families. However, there has been minimal research conducted to date to identify the key resilience factors among military families. This special issue discusses the key challenges to resilience as related to the needs of military families, factors contributing to resilience, and well-being outcomes in military families, including spouses, children and parents of military members. Recommendations for military organizations, current research gaps, and future research directions are discussed.

MILITARY FAMILIES SOCIETY TO ADAPT CHILD WITH LEADERSHIP QUALITY WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Today’s Children’s are the leaders of future. To become a leader, balanced quality care process is in paramount requirement for children in a family. Caring of children has various dimensions like physical growth, mental growth etcetera. The ultimate aim is to become a good leader. As a requirement all families do care their children to become a good leader. Where Military families were prominent in the race. Military families have norms and traditions which leads the children to grow up. Military environment had also a significant role in children’s growing process. After the birth of Bangladesh children of military family led the society in all sector namely Government job, social affairs, society development, nation building even in international forum. Obviously business sector was not untouched after nineteen eighties nationally and internationally. The reason of doing well in all sector was, proper molding of military children’s as a leader. Even currently most of the sector has quality leaders, who have military background but not leading as it was in early Eighties and Nineties. Being a developing countries Bangladesh is in need of quality leaders.

Deployment Risk and Resilience Model Applied to Military Children.

This exploratory study investigates the impact of a military mission on Portuguese families, specifically on children. Although most research seeks the negative consequences of this lived experience, through the "Deployment Risk and Resilience Model" the present study intends to explore if this period can also be an opportunity for military's children to grow and become more resilient. Aiming to express freely their lived and felt stories about the phenomenon under study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 children of the service members of the Portuguese Army, aged between 8 and 21 years old. The results of the thematic analysis indicated that the most critical moments of the mission were the notification period, the last days before the departure of the service member, and the deployment. The preparation of activities for the service members' absence in the pre-deployment and the increase of tasks to be carried out, during the deployment, were the most referenced changes. In the post-deployment, children perceived a rapid readjustment of the family system. Despite the military's children's difficulties in readjusting during the mission, they reported that the feelings of closeness to the nuclear family, increased responsibility, and personal growth were positive results experienced. It would be interesting to extend similar studies within family systems, as in other branches of the armed forces. As practical implications, the findings of our pioneering study may significantly contribute to the construction of programs and/or actions that promote a possible growth in the personal resilience of the children of Portuguese service members, and not only the recovery of the state prior to the mission.

Father–son relationships in Israeli military families from the perspective of adult sons

AbstractObjectiveThis research examines the experience of father–son relationships from the perspective of Israeli men whose fathers served as career combat officers.BackgroundMilitary families in general, and children in particular, face unique challenges in dealing with conflicting demands of two “greedy institutions,” military and family.MethodThis study is an interpretative phenomenological analysis of in‐depth interviews with 12 Israeli men, aged 25 to 49 years, who were sons of combat officers who served at least 15 years in the Israeli military.ResultsFive themes were identified through the men's responses: (a) father as idealized figure, (b) rationalizing father's distant stance, (c) absence of fear for father's safety, (d) role reversal: taking responsibility for the father–son relationship, (3) shifts in the relationship after father's retirement from the military.ConclusionThe unique life experience of military children as expressed in our findings is presented through the lens of Bozormenyi‐Nagy's (1987) contextual theory of the family. Participants exhibited “invisible loyalties”—complex, often contradictory feelings toward the father and his military career. Some strived to establish relationships very different from the one they had with their father but had difficulty doing so. Others voiced a balanced assessment of the benefits and “price” of being a military child and proceeded to develop relationships without being burdened by the military legacy.ImplicationsThis work provides insight for the provision of group activities sponsored by the military for fathers and sons and for those who offer counseling services for young adult military children even after the father's retirement.

Risk Factors for Moral Injury Among Canadian Armed Forces Personnel.

ObjectivesThe traumatic nature of high-risk military deployment events, such as combat, is well-recognized. However, whether other service-related events and demographic factors increase the risk of moral injury (MI), which is defined by consequences of highly stressful and morally-laden experiences, is poorly understood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine determinants of MI in Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel.MethodsData were obtained from the 2018 Canadian Armed Forces Members and Veterans Mental Health Follow-up Survey (CAFVMHS; unweighted n = 2,941). To identify military characteristics, sociodemographic variables, and deployment-related factors associated with increased levels of MI, a series of multiple linear regressions were conducted across deployed and non-deployed groups.ResultsWhen all variables were considered among the deployed personnel, rank, experiencing military related sexual trauma, child maltreatment (i.e., physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect), and stressful deployment experiences were significant predictors of increased MI total scores (β = 0.001 to β = 0.51, p < 0.05). Feeling responsible for the death of an ally and inability to respond in a threatening situation were the strongest predictors of MI among stressful deployment experiences. Within the non-deployed sample, experiencing military-related or civilian sexual trauma and rank were significant predictors of increased MI total scores (β = 0.02 to β = 0.81, p < 0.05).ConclusionExposure to stressful deployment experiences, particularly those involving moral-ethical challenges, sexual trauma, and childhood maltreatment were found to increase levels of MI in CAF personnel. These findings suggest several avenues of intervention, including education and policies aimed at mitigating sexual misconduct, as well as pre-deployment training to better prepare military personnel to deal effectively with morally injurious experiences.

Military Families from Within

This article analyzes the results of a survey among deployed Slovenian service members and their spouses. The purpose of the study was to observe the correlation between the adjustment of children, family dynamics, and military demands during a deployment. Qualitative and quantitative methods were triangulated with an aim to (1) observe how military children adjust and (2) test whether parents’ ability to achieve a work–family balance, the level of parental stress, their attachment style, and the characteristics of the deployment itself are related to the child’s adjustment. Findings indicate that the perception of how well children have adjusted to deployment varies between parents. Family dynamics during and after the deployment are also an important indicator of a child’s adjustment. Finally, while military families receive help from cross-generational family networks, no systematic policy measures exist to support spouses and children during periods of deployment. As a result, this study calls for greater awareness of military demands on family units.

The long shadow of the Kargil War: The effect of early-life stress on education

The paper examines the long-term impact of the India-Pakistan war of 1999 on the educational attainment of children born to families of soldiers who survived the war. Based on the assumption that military families faced higher levels of psychological stress than civilian families during the war period, the paper uses a difference-in-difference methodology with household fixed effects to show that the education of military children exposed to the war during their formative years suffered significantly. An examination of the consumption expenditure pattern of military and civilian households suggests that the effect was unlikely to be via resource-related channels. The improbability of other direct pathways through which the war could affect these families suggests that the negative effect might have resulted from the psychological stress that the war generated for the affected families.

Exploring gratitude, resilience and life satisfaction among military school children

Being a part of the military fraternity poses unique challenges to the individual, and the ripple effects on the family, especially the military school children are inevitable. The present study focused on exploring gratitude, resilience and life-satisfaction as a function of age and gender among 371 Indian military children, aged 11-14 years. The relationship between the three measures and the impact of gratitude and resilience on life-satisfaction was studied. Gender differences were observed with respect to the measure of resilience. A significant impact of gratitude and resilience on life satisfaction was observed. This study holds necessary implications in the field of health and well-being of military children.

Effectiveness of Sesame Workshop's Little Children, Big Challenges: A digital media SEL intervention for preschool classrooms

AbstractThis cluster‐randomized pre‐post comparison study examined the effects of using Sesame Workshop's Little Children, Big Challenges: General Resilience (LCBC) digital media toolkit in preschool classrooms over a 12‐week period. Participants included 157 preschool teachers and 766 preschool children from 159 preschool classrooms in 38 Head Start centers, 7 Military Child Development Centers, 2 community‐based preschool agencies, and a public school district. Children's social‐emotional skills, behaviors, and relationship qualities were measured using a combination of direct testing of children and teacher behavioral ratings. Hierarchical linear modeling accounted for classroom‐level nested data and the results indicated that LCBC increased emotion vocabulary, attachment, initiative, self‐control, emotion regulation, and adaptability. The LCBC intervention also significantly reduced teacher conflict, attention problems, and emotion control problems. Additionally, the teacher survey indicated that the intervention was appealing to teachers and students. Reasons for nonsignificant effects on teacher closeness, social problem solving, and social skills are discussed.

From the Trenches to the Writer’s Desk: Establishing a Collection of Children’s Books Authored by Military Veterans in an Academic Library

Kansas State University possesses a collection of juvenile literature to aid Education and English Department programs. K-State is also the university with the largest military population in the state. It was discovered that several famous children’s authors were military veterans. Building upon this research, over 160 children’s authors who served in the military were identified. K-State Libraries NEH Endowment Committee funded the curation of a military veteran children’s literature collection, the only known academic library to possess such a collection. The collection enabled the libraries to provide outreach through access to the materials, internet resources, and special collections exhibits.

The Military Child Care Act of 1989

The Department of Defense (DoD) operates the largest employer-sponsored child care in the nation. For Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and more, the Military Child Care Act (MCCA) of 1989 was enacted to establish law-mandated standards for all branches. Providing high-quality, available child care to service members helps maintain a mission ready force. Before the passing of the MCCA, the services’ child care programs were tainted with poor oversight, deplorable conditions and child abuse scandals detailed in GAO reports and congressional hearings. Investigations and legislative activity leading up to the passing of the MCCA, which became law under the National Defense Authorization Act of 1990 and 1991, forced the DoD to take responsibility for a new breed of service members—the military family.As a military spouse with children and employee of the DoD who co-supervises a child development center (CDC), I understand the importance of the MCCA and am able to witness DoD’s investment in their military families. The history of abhorrent conditions has all but vanished, due in part to public access of government publications. The timeline of this legislation in combination with nongovernment publications helps tell the story of the how the military model of child care became one in which the civilian sector strives to accomplish. My decade long career of federal service, my desire to be more knowledgeable of the original MCCA and my interest in military history inspired my research. My intended audience are those unfamiliar to military child care and those who may not understand the needs and sacrifices of our nation’s military families.

"This is not your Life…and it becomes your Life": A Qualitative Exploration of Deployment-related Stress and Support needs in National Guard and Reserve spouses who are Mothers of Young Children.

The adverse effects of deployment-related stress (DRS) on military service members, spouses, and children are well documented. Findings from a recent Consensus Report on Military Families by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2019) underscore the priority of gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the diversity of today's military families and their needs and well-being. While social support is generally regarded as helpful during times of stress, it has not been studied extensively in National Guard/Reserve spouses who are parents of young children. This qualitative study of 30 women examines the unique ways in which DRS affects women who are National Guard/Reserve spouses and mothers of young children, as well as the processes through which they encountered support to manage these stressors. Salient themes spanned experiences involving deployment cycle phases of separation and reintegration and included both anticipated and unanticipated changes in family-related division of labor, dynamics, and communication patterns. These were complicated by geographic, social, and cultural isolation and misguided efforts to support spouses initiated by civilians. Women managed these stressors primarily through seeking, acquiring, and repurposing existing sources of informal social support for themselves and formal supports for their children, with varying degrees of success.

Military parents' perceptions of separation for their younger children.

Many studies are available in the literature considering effects of deployment on older school age and adolescent children, but less is known about the effects on younger children. The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of deployment/separation for military children aged 4-10 years from both the deployed parent and stay-at-home parent's experiences. Parents completed demographics followed by an interview to describe the child's reaction to separation. Thematic analysis was used to identify children's reactions and intervention strategies. Thirty-eight families, encompassing 57 children aged 4-10 who experienced a separation or deployment within the past 2 years participated. Interviews included 24 military members and 34 spouses (most frequently the mothers) completed the interview and research instruments. Interview data revealed a turbulent experience for families resulting from frequent and repeated separations. Parents actively employed strategies garnered from military-provided materials and informal interaction with other military parents. The different perspectives provided new insights as to the strategies military families find successful during separations and will be useful in providing anticipatory guidance.