Personal Narrative: My Identity As A Military Child

Since children go through so many social, emotion, and educational needs the "Military Child in Transition and Deployment" website was formed to offer advice and resources for changing schools to military children and their parents to make their moves easier. For the youths, the site teaches youths to the importance of having keepsakes while their parents are deployed. For the teens, the site can help provide advice on colleges that would normally be provided by a parent (Desjarlais, 2004).

Military life can be a big amount of stress for children. There is multiple deployments where they go through long separations from their parents. Children even could experience a parent getting injured or possibly a death. That all is the reality for children who has a parent in the active duty military(website 1). There is such a huge impact on children’s mental health and high rates of trauma from them experiencing their parents going on deployments. More than two million American children have had a parent deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 19,000 children have had a parent wounded in action and over 2,200 children have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan(website 1). After all of this occurring in their lives, it then causes a huge change in the child. These changes are lashing out in anger, changes in school performance,

Growing up as a military child and living all over the world, I was afforded many

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

According to the Department of Defense Education Activity website, “the average military child will move six to nine times during a school career”—three times more frequently than non-military children (DoDEA, 2016). Because of this, military children have difficulty in school due to “differences in achievement standards, school protocols, course offerings, extracurricular activities, and academic requirements” (DoDEA, 2016). According to the Department of Defense Education Activity website, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools are schools who serve more than 73,000 children of active duty military and Department of Defense families.

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).

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

An article titled "How Deployment Stress Affects Children and Families: Research Findings" estimated that “by the end of 2008, 1.7 million American Service Members had served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF).” Each person is different. They experience and interpret situations unique to their personality that varies depending on the person, but war produces the same problems for members of the nuclear family. War creates a cloud of worry and anxiety. “Parents of [military personnel] often have misgivings (Lediaev).” These reservations and

These problems and challenges listed above are not experienced by all military families, many of the families are able to adapt well. Military families and children have a great capacity for adaption and resilience. In the military resilience is very important in all stages of deployment, it helps lessen the stress and improve the capability to adjust. About 74% of children become closer to friends and family. The children also become more responsible, and independent. When families function positively they find a meaning in military life and are able to accept the work of the soldier; this helps the morale of the soldier, as well as the ability to carry out the given mission. The strength of most military families can be a source of pride and inspiration for many non-military members.

For example, almost every kid whose parent or parents are in the military have been deployed before. Meaning that their parent is going away for duty to another country like Iraq or Afghanistan for 6-18 months. This puts stress on the family because they do not have both parents for support. Not only does having a parent deployed for a long time makes things stressful, but also moving to different cities because of one's parent received orders somewhere else to work. This part is also stressful due to the entire moving process. Parents have to get paper work processed and kids have to complete paper work for school, so they can stay on track from their old school to their new school. But besides the school and paper work, this is tough on the kids because they have to keep making new friends everywhere they move to. However, with moving comes new experiences. Such as, if one family gets stationed in Germany they can travel to different countries and experience other cultures. Or one can learn the country's language and communicate with others outside the military to adapt to their

As a military spouse, I’ve often drawn upon that inner sense of resilience that developed within me so many years ago. Enduring multiple deployments, moving across three continents, giving birth to my first child in a foreign country only to say goodbye to my husband one month later as he deployed, having to wear both “hats” of mom and dad while dad is away, moving every few years and having to “re-invent” my career—all of these situations have required resilience to withstand. Reflecting on my childhood has taught me to be grateful for the struggles I endured as those experiences provided me with a lifetime of inner strength and knowledge that I can endure any challenge placed in front of me. Thus, I do not dwell on the difficulties I experienced as a child. I have refused to let the first chapter of my life story dictate the outcome of the rest of my story. My childhood experiences taught me that external factors beyond our control do not define who we

They take on additional responsibilities. In many cases these children are forced to move with their families every 2 to 5 years which can be tough on children as they have to leave their home and friends behind to move. Many of them know a lot about death and are concerns with losing their dads while aways as they hear stories about so many other dying. The video expresses whenever they hear of someone dying in Afghanistan they get worried and think that could have been their parent. They are also dealing with the trauma of a parent that returns from Afghanistan with PTSD. Their stereotypical experience include going to school, helping around the house and babysitting siblings which is a normal occurrence of many families, including military families. In these families, the difference is many of these tasks are escalated as the parent at home may require additional help.

Although developmental psychologists have a difficult time pinpointing a cause and effect link between direct actions of parents to their child’s psychological development, it is apparent that the way a child is raised can correlate with their personalities. The type of parenting style Maureen’s parents presented could be the source to her own problems. Maureen’s dad, George, had worked in the military and after release transitioned to a policeman. When enlisted in the military soldiers, like George, are required to endure weeks and possibly months of rigorous training. Basic training (or boot camp) is an intense physical and mental experience that will become the building block to many soldiers’ military careers. Soldiers are taught how to look, what to say, and how to act by their superiors. After years of a military career, it is easy to rationalize that George would incorporate similar ideologies into his parenting style.

Brad’s story reminds me of what I witnessed among the displaced children of military families in the school system. I grew up in a military family and we moved every 4 years because my farther would get re-assigned. Brad traveled between his

The hypothesis of this study examined the prevalence and severity of child adjustment that had deployed and recently returned parents. The independent variable of this study was the prevalence and severity of adjustment problems among children. The