The Separation Of Military Children

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

This article supports my topic because it provides way to cope with family separation and stress which are psychological effects of deployment.

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,

There are a number of new things the parent must deal with because of this. The first of which being the new financial situation. There is still income coming from the soldier while they are deployed, and in the case where they are killed, a no-taxable gratitude payment of one hundred thousand dollars will be made out to the immediate family so long as the soldier died under certain conditions such as during active duty (Death Gratuity). While most have the basic abilities to balance a checkbook, it poses a challenge to manage paying bills, buying groceries, and other necessities by one's self. This is similar to another immense undertaking they are forced into managing, raising children as a virtual single parent (Effect of Parents).

PTSD. The Army is currently launching new programs designed for children to help them understand what the parent is going through and how PTSD works. Children also face stress from this situation and had nowhere to turn until now. The stress between the parent and child can greatly be reduced now due to multiple programs available for the child, spouse, or a group program.

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).

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

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

Before the impact of deployment and post-deployment on children was examined the overall rates of PTSD and other mental health disorders, TBI, and IVP as they related to combat exposure was researched. The rates of mental health disorders among this population varied among studies; the VA (2015) reported that a meta-analysis study found rates from as little as 1.4% to as high as 60%. Tanielian, Jaycox, Schell, Marshall, Burham, Eibner, Karney, Meredith, Ringel, & Vaina, E.M. (n.d.) reported that 18.5% or about 300,000 people suffered from PTSD or Major Depressive Disorder and 19.55% or 320,000 people reported probable TBI during deployment. Tevillion,

Combat deployment, in many ways, has affected every military family; the soldier, the spouse, and the child(ren). The spouses and child(ren) of the deployed soldier are often referred to as the “unsung heroes” of military families, at all times of a deployment. In the military, the families are often placed in the background, but families are crucial to the soldier’s success.

What do military families truly endure to maintain a relationship despite constant time apart during deployments? Husbands and wives are often forced to fill each others role while the other is away. When a parent is not used to being around a child it is hard to know to act and react to the child’s actions. All members of a military family can face some form of post traumatic stress disorder due to the unnatural lifestyle that is lived daily. Deployments cause military families to struggle more so than nonmilitary families due to role reversals, added child maltreatment and PTSD.

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 and families face multiple challenges just for being part of this culture, these challenges are not limited to disruption in family routines, extended separations, mental health problems and parenting difficulties that be related to exposure to traumatic events (Paley, Lester, & Mogil, 2013). One such challenge is deployment. What is deployment, it is the sending of military personnel and materials to a specific destination from their home installation (Military, 2015). Deployment encompasses the preparation and personal needs that are needed before, during and after deployment. All families preparing for a deployment separation go through a process defined by the stages of preparation, survival, and reunion and with each stage comes with different stressors and adjustments for the military member and family members left behind. The stages are predeployment, deployment, sustainment, redeployment and post deployment ((Devoe, & Ross, 2012), within these stages are the seven emotional stages of deployment anticipation of departure, detachment and withdrawal, emotional disorganization, recovery and stabilization, anticipation of return, return adjustment and renegotiation and reintegration and stabilization (Morse, 2006).

During my sixth grade year, my brother Brian was deployed to Iraq for the first time. From the youngest sibling’s point of view, Brian not being around was constantly shocking

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.