Overcoming The Challenges Of Corraditional Family And Nontraditional Families

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.

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarksian have shed new light on the subject of minority families and their differences to the traditional nuclear families in their essay, “The Color of Family Ties.” According to their work, those of White descent make up most of all nuclear families which can be described as a father, mother and children all living in one household. Gerstel and Sarkasian point out that it is not always the case that, “Black and Latino/a, especially Puerto Rican families are more disorganized than White families, and that their families ties are weaker,” as they are often thought of by those in politics or the media (62). In fact Gerstel and Sarkasian write, “Blacks and Latinos/as, are as likely as

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

Long absences can very often lead to complications in marriages and in relationships with children. Soldiers can miss very important moments because of a war, such as holidays and birthdays. The parent who is not at war also has to take on all of the responsibilities for home, children, and finance while their significant other is deployed. In addition to this, the parent who is left behind often finds themselves dealing with a change in behavior from their children, which is very likely a result from their other parent’s long absence. Many returning veterans blame the complications in their lives after their life in the military on their time deployed. It may seem insignificant, but this is a big reason why military force has an impact on the everyday lives of Americans who do not even serve for a military branch.

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

Military children are in a league of their own, and at very young ages are thrown into situations of great stress. Approximately 1.2 million children live in the U.S. Military families (Kelly. 2003) and at least 700,000 of them have had at least one parent deployed (Johnson et al. 2007). Every child handles a deployment differently, some may regress in potty training, and others may become extremely aggressive. Many different things can happen, in most cases when a parent deploys and the child becomes difficult to handle, it can cause a massive amount of stress on the parent that is not deployed as well as added stress on the parent who is deployed. There are three stages of a deployment, pre-deployment, deployment, and reintegration,

While many articles look at military children and how they cope with deployments this article (Cozza & Lerner, 2013, p. 3-11) examines the resilience of military children so that professionals can better understand military children as a whole child not just a child during and post deployment. This article also looks at how military children need to have policies and programs that are designed to meet their developing needs. The article further goes on to look at how professionals need incorporate the strengths of military children and the strengths they bring to their military families, so they can cope with the challenges that arise in their lives. This article points out that many children exposed to traumatic events tend to be healthier. Then the article discusses how overgeneralization of military children and families can hurt how programs and policies are enacted to benefit military children and families. It also looks at even though military pay has improved the wages of a military spouse are much lower than their civilian counterparts. A look at how the youngest of military children are the most vulnerable, how there needs to be more childcare as well as community support programs. Concluding with how we can gain insight and learn from the resilience and strengths that military children and military families

Modern families are becoming more of a norm in today’s society as more and more children are being raised in non-traditional families. The ever-changing arrangement of he family unit in the Unites Stated has altered the lives of many children. With the continued increase of children being born to unmarried parents, the adoption of children by homosexual couples and divorce rates rising, we are seeing a rise in third party individuals seeking visitation and custody rights. These third parties include foster parents, step parents, siblings, same sex partners and other relatives who at one point or another may have played a significant part in the child’s life.

Most military families face the possibility of a loved one returning to service which can also cause a great deal of fear and unpredictability within the family. Studies also prove that family members struggle with emotional distress and children often have behavioral issues as a result of parents deployed to serve in the military. “The strain of war deployment with associated risk that the service member may be harmed or killed, adds to the stressors inherent in military family life, even in times of peace” (Link, P. E., & Palinkas, L. A. (2013). This also suggest that family separations due to irregular tours and training deployments. Often impact the relationships in the family and can change the family dynamics often leaving one caregiver with a majority of the responsibility of raising a family. The military culture can adversely affect family functioning with inflexible hierarchical relationships, expectations and of obeying rules and

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.

As mentioned above the military family members go through many challenges. The service member when deployed leaves the other parent to the care of the family and home. Many divorces happen due to one parent being away from the home for long periods of time and the stress placed on the one parent at home. With one parent left to take on the role for both parents, this can either become a stressor for that one parent or strength building time. The children may receive less attention because the one parent is doing the duty of two. They become self-sufficient during this time. The service member that is deployed is focusing on the duty at hand. This may be patrolling the boundaries of the

“In the united states, more than 4 to 5 in 10 marriages end in a divorce, and approximately half of American children are affected by this change in family relationships” ( McDevitt & Ormrod, 2015, p.73). The divorce rate is continuously skyrocketing, and more children are having to learn how to deal with this occurrence. In addition to divorce, there are also many different types of family situations, that are not considered traditional, and these also cause children to go through hardships. For the most part, children who grow up in traditional working households have tended to do better in school and grow developmentally stronger than children in non-traditional household settings due to the hardships and the changes these children are going through.

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.

Just as Soldiers don’t face their day to day lives alone, the next thing to consider is that they don’t face deployments alone. Leaving family at home causes stresses on the family unit, but can also be a powerful team building tool between spouses, and with children. During deployments, the obligations that were previously shared between Soldiers and spouses now become the sole responsibility of the spouse. This increase in daily duties can take its toll on the spouse, but luckily, support groups are available, through the military, to help ease the transition. A unit’s Family Readiness Group (FRG) can help to ease some of the stress during deployments by offering support and increased communication from the command to spouses (Hollingsworth, 2011). One other role that the remaining spouse faces is raising children. Children often face psychological challenges of their own while dealing with the absence of a deployed family member. Studies suggest that an increase in parental roles from the spouse can help ease children into the transitional periods of pre and post deployment (Hollingsworth, 2011). Families are part of a community, and thus, part of a larger scale civilization