The Pros And Cons Of Military Soldiers

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

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,

Intro: There are almost two and a half million Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF ), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans in the United States (DoD, 2014). Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are signature wounds of these military operations, and are commonly referred to as “invisible wounds of war” (Tanielian et al 2008, from bello have another?-). OEF, OIF, and OND consisted of the longest and most frequent deployments in U.S. History with forty-eight percent of veterans having served at least two deployments (DoD, 2013). Children’s and non-deployed parent’s ability to cope and adapt to the deployment decreases as the length and frequency of deployments increase (Chandra, Martin, Hawkins, & Richardson, 2010; Lester et al., 2010). Children 's and partner 's stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression increase as the length of their loved one 's deployment increases (Gorman, Blow, Ames, & Reed, 2011; Mansfield, Kaufman, Engel, & Gaynes, 2011; Lester et al, 2010). Support from within the military branches, Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, extended family, health care providers, schools, and other social infrastructues/institutions within the community is critical for healthy family functioning and the future of military-connected children (MC).

Returning service members had issues such as “getting along with one’s spouse and children, taking care of one’s health and belonging in civilian society”. These matters create crucial tension in the service member’s and the family member’s life in addition to daily life as a civilian. (Kovatch, 2013) A study was done for both Army and Marines returning from combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). It was reported that 18% of active service members and 21% of Reserves and National Guard members had a “positive screen for mental health concerns on the Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA).”

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,

Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS) is a reliance based program that was modified to treat military communities specifically (Lester et al. 2011). Although services are not provided for mental health problems such as PTSD/SUD, anyone in the family showing signs of mental health in the initial assessment are referred to more intensive treatment. The referral does not exclude the member or members of the family from enlisting in the FOCUS program, because members of the family referred to intensive care can also be enrolled in FOCUS con-currently. (Lester et al. 2011; Saltzman et al. 2011). This program usually takes about eight sessions, and family size can contribute to more or less sessions. It is also available during any stage in deployment; pre, post, or during deployment. FOCUS is a goal orientated program, the first few sessions will be separated parents will attend counseling together, while children attend counseling separately. The whole family will eventually work together to incorporate what goals they want to set. In the initial stage of the program parents are asked to write a time line of their lives together. The time line is illustrated with two different colored pens, each parent will have a different color to draw at what point were their highest and lowest stresses. Now the therapist and the couple have a visual of how certain stressors effect

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

Military children, the most affected by the deployment, get fearful about their military father’s deployment, and will eventually rebel in his absence, thus adding more stress to the non-deployed mother. However, the experience will help them forge stronger bond with their mother and gain maturity and flexibility in their daily lives.

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.

Joseph Goldberg, MD, mentioned in his article Reactive Attachment Disorder, “The absence of emotional warmth during the first few years of life can negatively affect a child’s entire future.” The detachment of a mother and child causes a condition called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), which is a condition in children who do not form a healthy emotional attachment with their mothers usually age 5 or younger. There is no medication for this disorder only counseling and emotional exercises. RAD leads to depression, aggression, learning difficulties, problems at school, and inability to form meaningful relationships. Giving us insight that our military children futures are at risk of failure in

Deployment of a parent and/or spouse can cause a myriad of behavioral and/or emotional changes in the family members at home. The stress of deployment on the spouse at home can cause mental health issues that have a negative impact on their relationship with their child(ren) and their parenting practices (Swenson & Wolff, 2011). Subsequently, a spouse left to parent and carry on alone for months on end may begin to feel the weight of their compounded responsibilities. This heaviness, added to the fear for their spouse’s safety and the heartache of loneliness, can be felt in such a deep way that depression, insomnia, and anxiety lead them to needing medication and/or therapy. In the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, Flake, Davis,

Physical abuse appears to be the most common type of child maltreatment in military families, with 31% to 70% of all child maltreatment cases being this type of abuse (Rentz et al., 2006). Like child physical abuse, child neglect is also a common form of child maltreatment in military families, 18% to 23% (Rentz et al., 2006). More specifically, for female civilian parents, the rate of child neglect during deployment was 4 times greater than the rates not during deployment (Milner, 2015). For male civilian parents, child maltreatment rates during versus not during deployment were unchanged (Milner, 2015). This interest is driven by the observation that, for the stay-at-home civilian parents, the period of deployment can be marked by factors

Deployment of a parent and/or spouse can cause a myriad of behavioral and/or emotional changes in the family members left behind. The stress of deployment on the spouse left at home can cause mental health issues that have a negative impact on their relationship with their child(ren) and their parenting practices (Swenson & Wolff, 2011). Subsequently, a spouse left to parent and carry on alone for months on end may begin to feel the weight of their compounded responsibilities, the fear for their spouse’s safety, and the heartache of loneliness in such a deep way that depression, insomnia, and anxiety lead them to needing medication and/or therapy. The children in these families have no control over the

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

Children’s reactions to a parent being deployed vary on the child, where are they at in the stage of life and development stages as well. Younger children may show more signs of separation anxiety, change in there eating habits. School age children show a decline in their academic performance and have some sort of mood change. Teenagers usually show signs of anger and show signs of depression (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2009).