Virtual Single Parenting

Military personnel are deployed as part of their job. Usually deployments are out of the country, where most service members are leaving their family behind. With deployment, sometimes you don’t know where military personnel will be going and how long the person may be gone. The most important question is “Are they safe where they are going?” Not only does the person in the military ask these question, but the significant others such as partners and kids worry about these questions, knowing that sometimes these questions won’t have a straight answer. Not only do military personnel suffer from certain emotions and become affect from being away from their family; the family also goes through the same storm. Some are under the assumption that because the family back at home have the benefits provide by the military, they have nothing

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

The authors concluded that the shorter that dwell time, the harder it is for military families to maintain a stable relationship. The authors also provided helpful information on family support and how stress factors can be reduced when military families come across deployment.

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.

“Studies of OEF/OIF combat veterans have revealed that rates of PTSD are higher in deployed soldiers compared to non-deployed soldiers (Buchanan, C. et al., p.743).” Unfortunately, in some cases, military spouses are not fully aware of the symptoms for PTSD. Some feel powerless and unsure on what to do when symptoms begin damaging their relationship with their love one. Broadly speaking, military couples who are challenged with a deployment suffer more stress which may lead to PTSD when they do not know how to obtain support when needed, have lower income, and are not satisfied with the military and it's missions. Other factors that may dictate the degree of stress for military couples facing a deployment are income, education, and rank. Couples who have had prior military experience such as having military parents or serving a number of years preceding a deployment may adapt well to the demands of military life. Overall, relationship satisfaction may result if couples possess excellent communication and marital quality. Greater emphasis on military assistance has been to shown to reduce stress in couples, but spouses who perceive the military as being “less concerned” for them and their love one usually experience higher levels of stress. Also, unenthusiastic emotions toward the mission in the middle east can be related to greater stress in couples. “Negative attitudes toward the U.S. Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan were associated with more stress (Allen, E.

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

First of all, there is something people need to know. Veterans stay away from their family, but then they come back like they have never left, and they don’t want to remember what happened in battle. Real heroes like this make sacrifices. If they have children, those children might have been upset without a parent or someone else to make them feel better and have been waiting for days, months, or maybe years! It’s sad being alone with no family

“A common saying in the military is that when one person joins, the whole family serves” (Alfano, 2016, p. ).

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.,

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,

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.

This research paper provides a theoretical perspective on the effects that military deployment has on marital relationships. The background section investigates the five different military branches, what stressors are involved for those in military relationships, and a brief history of what military relationships were like in the past. In the literature review, readers will explore research studies that have been conducted in the past five years that pertain to military couples. There are three themes that will be pointed out throughout the literature review; the psychological effects deployment has on

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