Publication year
2014
Citation Title
Strong, safe, and secure: Negotiating early fathering and military service across the deployment cycle.
Journal Name
Infant Mental Health Journal
Journal Volume
35
Issue Number
5
Page Numbers
509-520
DOI
10.1002/imhj.21465
Summary
National Guard or Reserve Service member fathers who had been separated from their children due to deployment participated in individual interviews about their beliefs and attributions regarding their young children. Qualitative analyses were used to identify opportunities to support healthy family functioning across the deployment cycle. Results indicated that fathers had specific hopes for their child’s healthy development if positive characteristics but felt unable to support the development of these characteristics due to their own emotional issues and distance.
Key Findings
All fathers described clear hopes and dreams for their children’s healthy development, including being strong, confident, and competent.
Fathers reported that they struggled to manage and help their children regulate negative emotions because their children’s negative emotions evoked thoughts, feelings, and memories of military and combat experiences.
Many fathers reported that they experienced loss related to their military experiences; this loss led them to try to maintain an emotional distance from their partners and children.
Fathers reported that they relied on their parenting partners to help readjust to the parenting role after deployment.
Implications for Program Leaders
Offer parenting classes for military fathers that teach skills for managing their children’s negative emotions and difficult behaviors
Provide supportive classes for military couples (both parents) focusing on co-parenting and building parenting skills
Disperse information regarding possible mental health symptoms Service members may experience following deployment and how these symptoms can influence parenting and family functioning and way to cope effectively
Implications for Policy Makers
Recommend increasing access to parenting programs for military parents
Encourage programs addressing Service member or Veteran’s trauma-related symptoms to specifically address issues surrounding parenting
Continue to support programs that work with military families during reintegration
Methods
Participants were drawn from a larger study piloting a parent and mental health intervention. They had deployed during the previous two years, and had at least one child under the age of seven.
Participants were recruited via flyers at a Veterans Administration (VA) facility in Michigan and at reintegration weekends.
Fathers were interviewed in their homes regarding their beliefs and attributions about their young children and also completed a demographic questionnaire.
Participants
Fourteen male Service members from the National Guard or Reserve participated.
Age range of fathers was 22-40 years old; 75% were married.
Eighty-three percent of the fathers were White.
Limitations
The sample was small and homogenous; therefore, results may not generalize to other military members or Active Duty personnel.
The participants were primarily White, had high levels of PTSD symptoms, and were enrolling in a parenting class, all of which may bias results.
Descriptions of the qualitative analyses were vague, making it difficult to fully understand their analytic procedure.
Avenues for Future Research
Supplement this qualitative data with quantitative measures, examining possible associations with other parent and child outcomes
Evaluate existing parenting programs to measure their ability to improve fathers’ efficacy in dealing with their children’s negative emotions and behaviors
Explore whether similar issues are common among mothers who were separated from their children due to a deployment
Focus
National Guard
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Component
Abstract
Military fathers of young children often endure repeated separations from their children, and these may disrupt the early parent–child relationship. Postdeployment reunification also poses challenges; disruptions that have occurred must often be repaired in the context of heightened emotions on the part of each family member at a time when fathers are themselves readjusting to the routines and responsibilities of family life. The current study employed qualitative research with the central aim of informing a richer understanding of these experiences. Interviews were conducted with 14 military fathers of young children who had experienced separation from their families during deployment. Narratives were coded using principles of grounded theory, and common parenting themes were extracted. Fathers shared their hopes that their young children would develop qualities of strength, confidence, and self-sufficiency. They also discussed difficulty in supporting the development of these qualities in their young children due to problems dealing with the negative emotions and difficult behaviors that their children exhibited. Reliance on their parenting partner was commonly cited as an effective strategy as fathers transitioned back to family life. Implications for intervention programs include the provision of parenting and self-care skills and inclusion of the father's parenting partner in the intervention.
Abstract Document
PRTW Document
Attach