July 22, 2013 - At a time when the U.S. military has the highest number of parents among its active-duty service members and is engaged in the longest sustained military conflict in history, in Iraq and Afghanistan, new research is showing that the strain on military families is being felt acutely by even its youngest members, children under the age of 6.Young children can exhibit the same anxiety, depression, stress and aggression that some older children and adults experience after living with multiple deployments, long separations, and often tense and awkward reunions with parents returning from war, particularly when the parent has been physically or mentally traumatized.
snip Unlike during the Vietnam War, when only 15 percent of active-duty troops were parents and most of them were men, today, nearly half of all active-duty service members have children, and 14 percent of those service members are single parents. Mothers make up 16 percent of the active-duty force. Two million children under the age of 18 have an active-duty parent, and 500,000 of those children are under the age of 6.
The report, “Home Front Alert: The Risks Facing Young Children in Military Families,” a survey of scientific literature over the past decade, notes that stress levels for military families are unprecedented. read more>>>
Publication number: 2013-31 Author(s): David Murphey
Publication date: Jul 2013
Doc type: Research Brief
This brief examines the special circumstances that characterize the lives of children in military families, and highlights what we know and don’t know about how military life affects their well-being
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