Publication year
2008
Citation Title
Effect of parents’ wartime deployment on the behavior of young children in military families.
Journal Name
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Journal Volume
162
Issue Number
11
Page Numbers
1009-1014
DOI
10.1001/archpedi.162.11.1009
Summary
Deployment can be a stressful time for children, particularly young children who may not understand what is happening. For this study, parents and childcare providers of children ages 18 months to five years old were surveyed regarding their child’s behavior during a parental deployment. Results showed that children ages three to five who experienced the deployment of a parent had significantly more behavior problems.
Key Findings
Children ages three to five had significant behavioral responses to parental deployment, including increased internalizing and externalizing behaviors, independent of the stress and depression levels of their non-deployed parent.
Those children who were between 18 months and three years old at the time of parental deployment actually exhibited fewer externalizing behaviors than children whose parent was not deployed.
The findings regarding children ages three to five occurred when examining reports from childcare providers as well as from parents, while findings for the younger children were limited to parents’ reports.
Implications for Program Leaders
Provide classes for families during the pre-deployment phase to support them in discussing and planning for upcoming changes
Offer peer support programs for families to foster the use of social networks during deployment
Provide workshops for non-deployed parents during the deployment phase to help them learn how to respond to possible behavior changes among children
Implications for Policy Makers
Continue to support the development of programs for children in military families during deployment
Recommend behavioral screening for children in military families to identify those who might most benefit from participating in supportive programming or intervention
Encourage the development of parenting support programs that assist partners of deployed Service members
Methods
Parent and childcare providers of children aged 18 months to five years were selected from an on-base military childcare center on a large Marine base with high deployment rates.
Parent participants completed the questionnaires regarding child behavior, parenting stress, and depression while childcare providers completed questionnaires only regarding child behavior.
Statistical analyses were used to compare the internalizing, externalizing, and total behavior problems of children with and without a deployed parent.
Participants
Participants were 169 families with a Marine parent. Of the deployed parents, 92% were fathers.
Children were excluded if they had a known behavioral disorder or developmental disability.
Most of the parent respondents were the child’s mother (91%).
Of the mothers, 66% were White, 16% were Black, 14% were Latino, 2% were Asian-American, and 2% were other races.
Limitations
All respondents lived within a military community, which offers resources to support military families during times of deployment. Results may not generalize to families living outside of military bases.
Lengths of deployment on average at the time of measurement were relatively brief, with a mean of 3.9 months, so findings may be different in a group of children experiencing longer deployments.
The study screened out children of parents in the Reserve Component; those families may have different experiences with deployment.
Avenues for Future Research
Utilize longitudinal designs to determine whether there are changes in children’s behavior over the deployment cycle
Investigate behaviors of the children of deployed parents in the National Guard and Reserves
Explore possible explanations for the decrease in externalizing behaviors in the youngest children of deployed Service members
Focus
Marines
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Branch
Military Component
Abstract
Objective: To describe the effect of wartime military deployments on the behavior of young children in military families. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Childcare centers on a large Marine base. Participants: Parents and childcare providers of children aged 11?2 to 5 years enrolled in on-base child care centers. Main Exposure: Parental deployment. Outcome Measures: Mean externalizing, internalizing, and total symptom scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (1?2-5 years) and the CBCL–Teacher Report Form (TRF) (1?2-5 years). Results: One hundred sixty-nine of 233 consenting families (73%) participated. Nonresponders did not differ from responders in their child’s age or TRF scores. Fifty-five children (33%) had a deployed parent. Parents with children aged 3 years or older and a deployed spouse had significantly higher depression scores than those without a deployed spouse. There were no differences in the demographic characteristics between groups. After controlling for respondent’s age, stress and depressive symptoms, deployed service member’s rank, and total number of children in the home, we found an age by deployment interaction: children aged 3 years or older with a deployed parent had significantly higher CBCL externalizing and total scores (externalizing, 48.50 vs 43.31, P.05; total, 47.71 vs 42.68, P.05) and externalizing and total TRF scores (externalizing, 50.21 vs 45.62, P.05; total, 48.54 vs 43.73, P.05) compared with same-aged peers without a deployed parent. Conclusions: This study is the first to show that children aged 3 years or older with a deployed parent exhibit increased behavioral symptoms compared with peers without a deployed parent after control.
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