Combat-Injured Service Members and Their Families: The Relationship of Child Distress and Spouse-Perceived Family Distress and Disruption

Combat-related injuries can have a significant impact, not only on Service members, but also on their families and children. The relationships between family pre-deployment distress, child post-injury distress, Service member injury severity, and family post-injury disruption were examined. Higher family pre-deployment distress and family post-injury disruption, but not injury severity, were associated with greater child post-injury distress.