This story hits home because Colorado Springs is a large military community. A study out of the University of Washington shows that children of deployed military members are more than twice as likely to carry a weapon, join a gang or be involved in fights. According to statistics, almost 2 million US kids have at least one parent serving in the military.
Those of us who have been through multiple deployments know the stress it takes on a family. We can see how it impacts the military member and how homelife isn’t the same when one parent is away. There are very few studies about the stress on children of deployed military members. However, mental health care experts are studying the impacts of war on children of servicemembers. There is stress from the time a parent learns they will be deploying, through deployment and even when they return home.
This study compared the behavior of kids in military families to children in non-military families. It was done in 2008 and included about 10,000 students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades in Washington state. Out of those kids only about 550 had a parent deployed to a combat zone.
“According to the findings, older youth have a higher likelihood of engaging in risky behavior. In 10th and 12th grade, girls with a deployed parent had higher odds of reporting school-based weapon carrying (2.2) and physical fighting (2.6), and being a member of a gang (2.84). Boys with a deployed parent were at increased risk of school-based weapon carrying (2.87) and physical fighting (2.48), and gang membership (2.08). The connection between the negative behavior was constant after controlling for grade, race/ethnicity and maternal education.”
“This study raises serious concerns about an under recognized consequence of war. How children cope with their parent’s deployment is a real issue that countless families are confronted with every day,” said Sarah Reed, MPH, MSW, LICSW, lead researcher of the study. “There is a unique opportunity here to intervene and offer these children – who are acutely vulnerable to negative influences – the support they need so they don’t turn to violence as a way to help cope.”
It’s hard to know what the right response to this is, nothing can replace a parent when they are gone. We can’t require every child to go to counseling and the military couldn’t afford it. It seems there are many studies that show how the constant deployments have negative impacts on military members and their families. We’ve been a nation at war for over a decade. Hopefully, these studies will make the decisionmakers rethink how often our military members are deployed. We need to take care of our military families.
Are you a military member, spouse, child? Do you think multiple deployments impact a kid’s behavior?
