Deployment and the Military Family

To summarize (Kaplow, Layne, Saltztman, Cozza & Pynoos, 2013, p. 322-340) this article looks at how grief through exposure to loss due to combat fights, loss of fellow unit members, or the loss of a service member can affect a service member or military family during deployment and reintegration phases. The article goes on to discuss some of the stresses that can increase due to deployments such as martial conflicts, abuse or neglect, and mental health problems stemming from both spouses or children. More military children function equally as well as their civilian counterparts, except during times of deployment where they experience more emotional and behavioral problems. The article looks at three key areas Separation distress characterized as missing the deceased. Existential/Identity Distress finding meaning or fulfillment, or taking on roles left by the deceased. Circumstance-Related Distress characterized as emotional pain brought on by how the deceased passed. The article furthermore looks into how the age of the military children plays into their separation distress. Followed by their existential/identity Distress may be disrupted by new

There is a large amount of military families around the world. About Forty- three percent of active military members have children (Website). These children face so many challenges and struggles in their life while having a parent in the military. Children of Active duty military members exhibit anxiety, depression and stress just as much as the service members and spouses experience. For instance the children experience going through multiple deployments, long separations, frequent moves and awkward reunions when their parents return home from deployment. Even more so if the parent has been physically or mentally traumatized from overseas.

War creates a great amount of stress on families that go beyond the regular struggles that occur in every day family life. When a family member is deployed to a war, no one is left unaffected. Just as the soldiers themselves go into the war unaware of what effects it will cause neither does their families. War instills vulnerability throughout families as it is not certain that the enlisted family member will return home again. Robert Ross from Timothy Findley’s

A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children from military families have a higher risk of social, emotional and behavioral problems such as anxiety, depression and suicide ideation. Other reports have shown that military families also have a high rates of domestic violence, child abuse and spousal abuse. The immense strains and pressures of the military lifestyle create inconsistencies in the lives of military families that are often overlooked by those considering joining the military. Over the years the U.S government and other organizations have been doing ample research into family health in the military and effectively identifying and addressing critical issues that are faced by military families. Speaking from

Behavioral, emotional and mental problems all result from these situations and different age groups respond differently to all these types of effects. Toddlers and young children act very differently than adolescents and teens. They have various types of behaviors that they exhibit such as fits of anger and temper tantrums. Adults have a different set of emotional reactions. They do not normally exhibit the same types of emotional instabilities but instead are faced with increased challenged such as financial instability, isolation, feelings of being overwhelmed, and an intense fear for the safety of the deployed family member. They also must maintain their composure in front of their children and family in order to uphold the emotional stability to have the family keep theirs as well. For the deployed person, the separation can become a primary motivator for them and it is something that they can fight for and believe in. Family becomes the main reason to fight to come home. Military deployment becomes a large problem for some people to cope with. It creates a range of troubling emotional and financial effects on a family that can change the way they function as a household and a group. Children, being especially susceptible to emotional stress and instability compared to adults, have different types

Pincus et al. (2001) defined the deployment cycle as having the following 5 stages: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, redeployment, and lastly post-deployment. Morse (2006) expanded this cycle, emphasizing pre-deployment and post-deployment, to include the following 7 stages: Anticipation of Departure, Detachment and Withdrawal, Emotional Disorganization, Recovery and Stabilization, Anticipation of Return, Return Adjustment and Renegotiation, and lastly Reintegration and Stabilization. Both Pincus et al. (2001) and Morse (2006) found military wives having high anxiety during the post-deployment stage, while trying to comprehend how their husbands fit back into their lives. Vincenzes, Haddock, and Hickman (2014) found a positive relationship between duration of deployment and the wife’s psychological distress significantly increasing during the post-deployment period. Both military members as well as their family members experience an array of mental health problems due to deployment, such as stress and depression (Mansfield, 2010). A potential for regulating the relationship between psychological distress for military wives during the post-deployment period, may be with the variable of social support (Drummet et al., 2003; Vincenzes et al., 2014). Specifically, military wives at home may experience both positive and negative experiences concerning social support when separated from their husbands (Drummet et al., 2003; Skomorovsky, 2014; Vincenzes et al.,

The biggest challenge we face is finding harmony amongst our military obligations, our family obligations, military and civilian education, as well as mandatory training and operational deployments. Your family has to be your first priority. If you don’t get this right, nothing else will work well in your

One thing that all military installations offer to families is a mock deployment line. A mock deployment line is a wonderful thing for a child to experience. During a mock deployment line, the child will go through all of the steps their parent does when preparing to deploy. It cannot be stressed enough to parents the importance of informing their children’s caregivers and teachers that a parent will be deploying. Doing so is a vital step in helping the child cope with the upcoming separation. The child’s teacher, once informed of an upcoming deployment will help the child cope by incorporating activities such as reading books where a family member is taking a long trip, or talking with all the children about how they feel and why they feel the way they do into their lesson plans. Parents need to make sure they do not put off telling children of the deployment, letting their children know about the deployment as soon as possible will provide them the opportunity to become involved in preparing for the separation. Children will want to have many conversations with their parents about the deployment; parents need to make sure that they keep the discussions honest, straightforward, and factual (Clash, 2008).

War has tremendous effects on the human mind and impacts all parties involved. Remnants of war can dramatically affect relationships with loved ones and create greater problems ranging from financial problems to psychological damage that has more profound effects on the family infrastructure and its operation. The notion of war produces pressures and strains on the family that is not experienced everyday in the routine family life. Family member who experience PTSD from their service in the military also places unforeseen weights and consequences for the family to carry. There are specific effects distinct to a parent, a spouse, and children when a loved one is serving their country. The relationships between a service men and these family members are transformed with the absence and their reintegration.

When working with a family who has their first deployment, it is important to help reinforce their ability to respond to the challenges they may encounter throughout the deployment cycle. Deployment has been may have an impact on parent-child interactions for those who are deployed, as well as for caregivers remaining at home. It is important to provide psychoeducation on the impact the deployment may have on the family, such as separation and transitions, relationship challenges, mental health difficulties and substance abuse. It is important to educate and provide resources regarding this because research indicated that the role of parenting practices in the relationship between family stressors can have a direct impact on the child behavioral/emotional problems (Palmer, 2008). I would also provide resources on Family Service Centers, such as the Navy Fleet and Family Support Center. These centers can provide support and education about resiliency and military life. Child Serv, which is an organization piloting the Military Family Initiative, is another resource that would be helpful as it offers services for early childhood education and family counseling to military members and their

The military lifestyle is simply one of a kind. Our military places enormous stress not only on each of its members, but on each of their families as well. Long periods of separation, lengthy training, and combat deployments affect those in the battlefield and their loved ones at home. Our military has changed forever after the infamous terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. With continuous, hateful threats from our enemies, the demands placed upon our service members have become even more pronounced. Tours have become longer and more frequent. Marriages to military members are constantly burdened with these conflicts. Despite these increased hardships with recent conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, military marriages are becoming more resilient and are more likely to prevail.

Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common among children with a deployed military parent. Adolescents of military parents are facing adverse emotional and behavioral disorders as a consequence of a parent’s deployment. According to a retrospective cohort study, stress disorders increase by 18% and behavioral disorders increase by 19% among children who have a deployed military parent. This study, which was performed by cross-referencing the records of children of active-duty personnel with their parents’ deployment records, additionally found that mental and behavioral health visits were increased by 11% amid children with a deployed parent (Gorman, Eide, & Hisle-Gorman, 2010). Moreover, children of caregivers with poorer mental health are at an elevated risk of having poorer mental health themselves (House, Committee on Armed Services, United States, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, & Congress, 2010). For children who sacrifice so much to support their service

Deployment and integration are one the greatest challenges military families and children have to face on a daily basis. When a family member deploys or reintegrates within the entire family, it not only affects the service member but it affects the entire family. Deployment can often lead to families and children, experiencing a negative mental health outcomes and compromised wellbeing. Bello (2015) found that most families and children (80.5% required less than one month to adjust to the return of their deployed parent (Bello, 2015). Accordingly, the families and children are often quick to adjust to having their family member back in the home. Interestingly, discoveries are surprising in light of the fact that when contrasted to another family, the discoveries are definitely unique. Boberiene (2014) found that three out of every four families feel that reintegration after the first three months is the most stressful phase of a deployment (Boberiene, 2014). This is because the family experiences many emotions while the member is away.

One way to accomplish this is through answering research questions related to military family life, such as “How do multiple deployments, multiple moves and other military lifestyle factors affect the development of attachment in military children?” and “What is the long-term impact on military children who have experienced multiple deployments, relocations and other life-disrupting events associated with military life?” As America continues to send service members to the Middle East in the midst of the longest military conflict in its history, gaining an understanding of the long-term impact on this generation of military children is crucial to aid in the development of programs and resources with the hope of ameliorating the challenges they have encountered. Additionally, the answers to these research questions may assist in identifying protective and risk factors and increase positive outcomes for these children as they grow into

When a parent is deployed to serve at war, a child faces many hardships in his well-being. The main problem is that early children face many social, emotional, and physical problems when a parent goes to war and returns with a health issue. Children under age of five are developing negative behaviors, for example Home Front Alert: The Risk Facing Young Children In Military Families states that “children in military families with a deployed parent may experience stress, anxiety, and difficult coping, as well as academic problems” (Murphey, 2013, p. 4). This reveals that absent parents are not fulfilling the child’s cognitive needs, which plays an important in their health. Thus, children