Addressing Sequelae of Trauma and Interpersonal Violence in Military Children: A Review of the Literature and Case Illustration

Research has documented increases in child maltreatment at times when caregivers are deployed and rates have increased among military families since 2002, despite remaining stable among civilian families. Military youth also are susceptible to traumatic events that are nonmilitary related. Despite the prevalence of various forms of trauma exposure in military children and need for evidence-based interventions with traumatized military youth, there is no model for providing specialized mental health care with military youth. To date, reviews of evidence-based interventions for traumatized youth have not addressed their dissemination with traumatized military children. This paper aims to address this gap by: (a) providing an overview of the rates of trauma exposure factors that increase risk among military children; (b) reviewing the literature on evidence-based treatments for traumatized youth; (c) presenting a collaborative model for providing evidence-based treatment with traumatized military youth; and (d) presenting a case illustration of the model implementing an evidence-based treatment for traumatized children. The model has utility for disseminating evidence-based trauma treatments, which appear to be readily applicable for military families, as well as serving as a framework for implementing other types of specialized child mental health treatments (e.g., generalized anxiety, depression).