Essay On Military Parents

Are Children Who Have A Deployed Military Parent More At Risk For Development Issues?

Anytime a child is away from their parent whether it is to spend time with friends, while parents are at work or during school children tend to get emotional. Parents that are in active in the military can never be sure how much time they have to spend with their families. Separation anxiety is something that affects both child and parent negatively, and there is only so much you can do to prepare for it. Being deployed in the military is honorable but it will take a toll of on a family, especially a developing child.
Having a parent in the military that gets deployed is almost like living a single parent household. Yes, you have two parents but one of them isn’t always there and you can never be sure when there coming or

going. One of the parents is on the home front, taking care of the child alone; helping with homework, doctors’ appointments and any extracurricular activities the child may be involved in. The result of such an absence can cause development issues in children.
Since children are constantly learning and growing they don’t adapt to situations or things as quickly as adults do. A parent can deal with absence of their significant other better than a child can deal with missing their parent(s). As a coping mechanism children will have sudden changes in their behavior. In some cases children have become withdrawn emotionally and in other cases children become clingy.
According to Kids Health “All kids — no matter their age — want and need their parents to protect and care for them. And all parents want to be able to tell their kids that mommy and daddy will always be close by. But when a parent leaves for military service, that comforting balance is disrupted. Some parents have to leave their families for long stretches of time. Some will be in harm's way. And despite the pride our men and women in the armed services feel in serving their country — and the knowledge that they are well trained to do so — military families can't help but worry how their kids will manage in a parent's absence.”
From the Impact of Parents’ Wartime Military Deployment and Injury on Young Children’s Safety and Mental Health Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “Using healthcare data from the U.S. Military Health System, a group of researchers analyzed healthcare utilization patterns of 487,460 children aged 3-8. The team assessed the rate of post-deployment mental health, injury and child maltreatment visits of children whose parents did not deploy, those whose parents deployed and returned uninjured, and children whose parents deployed and returned injured. Researchers found that children of previously deployed parents have substantially more mental healthcare and child maltreatment consults compared to children whose parents did had not been deployed. Furthermore, visit rates were consistently higher in children of combat-injured parents, compared to children of non-injured parents.”
Having to bear the absence of a parent for unknown periods of time confuses children, and if the parent comes home injured then another issue arises.

Children can tell when you’re happy, sad or been hurt and will be very curious about what going on with you. Talking to your child about going away and be honest when they ask questions can possibly help with the transitions. There are several support groups for children whose parents are deployed and ways to prepare a child for their parent’s deployment but no research has been done to prove it to be effective.
Research from Psychiatric Effects of Military Deployment on Children and Families indicates; “Deployments for military members in the United States have increased in both frequency and length over the past 10 years. As a result of these deployments, many children from military families have experienced absences of one or both parents. More than two million United States children have been affected directly by a parent’s deployment. The evidence is clear that deployments are stressful on families and that children can be affected by these

deployments.”
While doing my research I discovered “Researchers have looked at the effect of deployment on different age groups.10,11 Children aged 3 to 5 years with a deployed parent experience greater behavioral symptoms than children with a deployed parent. Children aged between 18 months and 3 years react differently to having a parent deployed than those aged 3 to 5 years. The 3-to-5-years age group showed significantly higher internalizing, externalizing, and total symptom scores on the Child Behavior Checklist. The highest reported behavioral symptoms were those aged 3 to 5 years; however, children aged 18 months to 3 years had lower externalizing symptom scores.” The numbers and/or articles on developmental issues in children who have a deployed parent are high. Even when the children are separated into age groups the risks still exist the only difference is the reaction of the children.