Multiple Deployments Take Toll on Military Families — and Children

There are currently 1.8 million children who have at least one parent in the military and currently over 230,000 children who have at least one parent who is deployed. Unlike previous wars, US military have faced multiple deployments, leading to stresses that are different than those found in past conflicts. While many military personnel deal well with these challenges, others have catastrophic problems that impact their lives as a result. Approximately 20 percent of military sent to Iraq and Afghanistan come home with posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], traumatic brain injury, or depression; others find it impossible to adjust to life away from the war front, finding that relationships, mood, and cognition are impaired or disrupted. When a parent with one or more problems returns to a family on the home front, there is a ripple effect on the partner, extended family, and children. For some, the first deployment is the most stressful; for others the cumulative affect of returning to battle and then to home increases the chance of trauma reactions, marital problems, and even family violence and child abuse at home.

As trauma specialists, we really haven’t had to deal with anything like this before and many of us are finding ourselves in new territory when we attempt to intervene with children and families of today’s military. Multiple homecomings, re-integrations, and deployments are difficult for children to understand and may cause changes in behavior, social interactions, and even cognitive functioning. For example, children and teens who have endured multiple deployments of a parent may have problems with sleep, attention deficits in the classroom, and even higher blood pressure and increased heart rates. School-age children may have behavioral problems in school and lose interest in their favorite activities; adolescent development is disrupted by the deployment of a parent. Young children [up to 5 years old] may regress to earlier behaviors or cling to parents, displaying otherwise unexpressed fear and worry. Do these reactions sound familiar? Of course they do; they are similar to the responses we see in children who have experienced extended or chronic trauma.

Presently there are some programs such as Zero to Three, the Military Child Education Coalition, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America that address the stress of multiple deployments on children. However, we really know relatively very little about how the unique aspects of the recent wars have impacted military families, particularly children.  In order to address the lack of research on intervention for children of military families, the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children is currently working on developing programs to address the needs of children adjusting to parents with multiple deployments, including those children who are attending schools not associated with a military base.

TLC would like to know if you are working with children of military or if have you worked with military families. If so, TLC would like your contact and employer information so that you can be involved in this initiative as the project develops. Please send an email to bsteele@tlcinst.org or phone the TLC office at 877-306-5256. It is important that TLC hear from you as soon as possible so that we will have a comprehensive list of those trauma specialists encountering children of military in their work.

Look for more information on the TLC website, the official TLC Fan Page on Facebook, and TLC’s Twitter very soon. It’s exciting to envision how we all can more effectively provide intervention to children and military families to help these children cope, thrive, and become more resilient– and we look forward to hearing your experiences on how we can all make this happen.

Be well,

Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPAT, LPCC

Resource

Sesame Street provides free DVDs to help younger children cope with the cycle of deployment, homecoming, and reintegration. Visit “Talk Listen Connect” at  http://www.sesameworkshop.org/initiatives/emotion/tlc to find out more and to obtain these materials.

Follow TLC’s Twitter at http://twitter.com/TLCchildtrauma

Become a Fan of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children– join our Facebook Fan Page today!