Military Families, Effects of Combat and Deployment on

Families affected by military service face exceptional challenges. Issues surrounding the increasing effects of combat deployment on families have surfaced in the last decade as a result of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom—OEF) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom—OIF), as well as Operation New Dawn (OND; Iraq war post 2010), which have resulted in frequent and lengthy deployments for members of the armed forces. Since the start of these conflicts, more than two million children have been directly affected by the deployment of a parent. For the youngest children in military families, deployment interferes with the opportunity to develop and maintain relationships with the service-member parent during critical developmental periods, which may affect their ability to reestablish relationships with that parent upon reintegration or postdeployment. Military estimates state that nearly half—40%—of children who have been affected by parental deployment in the current conflicts are under the age of 5. Military deployment disrupts family life and causes stressful times for both the adults and children in the family. Although families affected by military service are thought to be highly resilient, the current conflicts involving drawn-out deployment separations and multiple tours of duty are causing tremendous strain on military family functioning. For example, recent research by Sean C. Sheppard and colleagues suggests that for children, deployment is associated with both externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggressiveness and irritability) and internalizing problems (e.g., crying, sadness, and anxiety). Lower academic performance has also been implicated with repeated and lengthy parental [Page 385]deployments in a study by Amy Richardson and colleagues. An increased risk for attachment-related disturbances has been found by Anita Chandra and collaborators. An increase in the use of mental health outpatient visits for children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 (especially associated with longer deployments) was discovered in a large study by A. J. Mansfield and fellow researchers. Other studies have pointed to greater behavioral health complaints in children in the primary care setting as well. Families from the National Guard and Reserve components are also at risk or perhaps face an even greater risk because they do not live on or near military installations for the support and resources that are typically found on a military base. For children dealing with parental deployment, the prolonged separations are often considered the primary distressing experience for children beyond the effects of parental trauma exposure. Furthermore, for the very young child, separation from a service-member parent is a potentially traumatic event because of the absence of a supportive and responsive caregiver. Factors such as developmental stage, age, temperament, access to support systems and how well the remaining parent copes all seem to influence the type of responses that children will display during service member parent deployment.

According to military statistics, 55% of military personnel are married, and the current trend toward lengthy deployments can take a toll on the military spouses. Recent studies, on spousal coping, such as one conducted by Erin E. Demiceli and colleagues, have indicated that some wives will report greater somatic complaints as well as symptoms of depression while their military spouses are deployed. Many of these spouses assume single-parent and head-of-household roles when their service member spouse deploys, and this can result in a stressful experience for the remaining spouse, who tends to be young and has little outside support. If the remaining parent is not coping well with the deployment, the children also tend to suffer because the remaining parent can become less consistent in his or her parenting due to the role strain and the stress he or she may be experiencing. Child maltreatment rates have also tended to increase with deployments. A study on Army families conducted between 2001 and 2004 showed an increase in the incidence of child abuse and neglect three times greater during periods of deployment compared with periods of nondeployment. Mediating factors may serve as protective factors in facilitating coping skills for the remaining spouses, including stable predeployment family functioning, good support systems, the meaning attributed to the deployment, and the type of deployment. Noncombat deployment may be associated with less stress for the remaining spouse and children than overseas combat deployments to hostile volatile zones.

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