Publication year
2015
Citation Title
Child maltreatment among U.S. Air Force parents deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom.
Journal Name
Child Maltreatment
Journal Volume
20
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
61-71
DOI
10.1177/1077559514560625
Summary
Increased stress, including during deployment, may put parents at greater risk for perpetrating child maltreatment. Rates of child maltreatment, as well as type and severity of maltreatment, were compared pre- and post-deployment among Active Duty U.S. Air Force parents. No significant differences were found between overall rates of child maltreatment pre- and post-deployment; however, rates of moderate and severe maltreatment and incidents involving alcohol and child injury were greater post-deployment.
Key Findings
There was no significant difference between overall rates of child maltreatment pre- and post-deployment; however, rates of mild maltreatment decreased post-deployment while rates of moderate or severe maltreatment increased.
Rates of maltreatment incidents that included offender alcohol use or child injury, particularly moderate or severe injury, were significantly higher post-deployment than pre-deployment.
Regardless of deployment stage, maltreatment rates were higher among fathers than mothers, never married or divorced parents than married parents, and enlisted parents than parents who were officers.
Implications for Program Leaders
Educate returning Service members and their families about child maltreatment risk factors
Provide education to military families with a history of regarding healthy parenting, alternative discipline strategies, and stress-management techniques
Offer post-deployment support groups for Service members and their families to assist them with the potentially stressful transitions
Implications for Policy Makers
Continue to support programs that assist Service members with coping with parenting stress
Encourage the incorporation of education about the potentially negative impacts of unsafe alcohol use on parenting in existing military parenting programs
Recommend partnerships among military-based and community-based programs to coordinate family violence awareness campaigns
Methods
Deployment and personnel data were provided by the Clinical Informatics Branch from the Air Force database; child maltreatment rates were obtained from Family Advocacy Program databases.
Data were included for only Active Duty Air Force personnel who had deployed for at least 31 days during OIF/OEF and who had at least one child under the age of 18 years; maltreatment incidents included only substantiated incidents of child maltreatment (e.g., neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse).
Child maltreatment rates were calculated as the ratio of maltreatment incidents to the number of days maltreatment could have occured, and rates were compared between deployment stages, demographic characteristics, and deployment characteristics.
Participants
Participants included 99,697 Active Duty Air Force members who had deployed in OIF/OEF; they were 89% male and had an average age of 31.21 years (SD = 7.22).
Participants were 62% White, 12% Black, 8% Latino, 2% Asian American, 2% Multiracial, and less than 1% Native American; 14% had missing race data.
Air Force members had completed an average of 1.80 deployments between 2001-2008
Limitations
Some important variables (e.g., combat exposure, Service member's mental health status) were not included in the database, and therefore, could not be analyzed.
Participants were predominately male and all Air Force members, limiting generalizability to a broader population of military families.
Given that child maltreatment is often under-reported and only substantiated cases were included, many incidents of child maltreatment were likely not included in the study.
Avenues for Future Research
Explore whether parent attitudes and beliefs impact rates of child maltreatment
Conduct qualitative research on military parents’ perspectives of child maltreatment
Examine protective factors that may increase resilience of military families at risk for child maltreatment
Focus
Air Force
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Branch
Military Component
Abstract
This study examined child maltreatment perpetration among 99,697 active-duty U.S. Air Force parents who completed a combat deployment. Using the deploying parent as the unit of analysis, we analyzed whether child maltreatment rates increased postdeployement relative to predeployment. These analyses extend previous research that used aggregate data and extend our previous work that used data from the same period but used the victim as the unit of analysis and included only deploying parents who engaged in child maltreatment. In this study, 2% (n = 1,746) of deploying parents perpetrated child maltreatment during the study period. Although no overall differences were found in child maltreatment rates postdeployment compared to predeployment, several maltreatment-related characteristics qualified this finding. Rates for emotional abuse and mild maltreatment were lower following deployment, whereas child maltreatment rates for severe maltreatment were higher following deployment. The finding that rates of severe child maltreatment, including incidents involving alcohol use, were higher postdeployment suggests a need for additional support services for parents following their return from combat deployment, with a focus on returning parents who have an alcohol use problem.
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