Supporting Military Parent and Child Adjustment to Deployments and Separations with Filial Therapy

Parental deployment can have a significant impact on children’s psychological, behavioral, and physical well-being. Although most children are resilient, researchers agree that long periods of separation might be a significant source of stress for parents and children in military families. This paper provides a review of the literature of the effects of parental military deployment on child well-being and the parent-child relationship. The authors examine several major parent-child interventions implemented nation-wide during the past five years and provide a rationale for the use of filial therapy, an empirically validated intervention, with military parents and children.