While research has been conducted to assess the effects of deployment and reintegration on service members, little is known about how wartime experiences and parental deployments are affecting military families. That’s why the National Military Family Association commissioned a RAND Study to determine the academic, social and emotional consequences of extended wartime deployment.
Key findings include:
- Children from military families may be experiencing above average levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties
- Longer periods of deployment were associated with greater levels of emotional and social challenges
- Problems affected children of different ages and genders in various ways
- Older youths and boys had more difficulties with school and more problem behaviors, such as fighting
- Greater numbers of younger children and girls reported anxiety symptoms
- Deployment-related challenges varied by age and gender
- Older youths experienced greater school- and peer-related difficulties during deployment
- Girls experienced greater difficulties during the period of reintegration than did boys
For more information on the study, the National Military Family Association can offer:
Reference Information:
Chandra A, Lara-Cinisomo S, Jaycox L, Tanielian T, Burns R, Ruder T, and Han B, “Children on the Homefront: The Experience of Children from Military Families,” Pediatrics, Vol. 125, No. 1, 2010.
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