With over 100,000 military members currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, many military couples continue to face the prospect of additional deployments. Keeping your marriage strong while you are apart takes dedication, patience, trust and commitment. The following tips can help you work towards building and strengthening your own healthy marriage. (Author abstract)
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Money Habitudes II is a simple but powerful tool to help young adults talk about money. This version is geared towards people age 18-25 and is typically used with the military, college students and young adults starting work and living more independently. The award-winning decks of cards are easy to use and provide new insights in a fun, game-like format. They can be used by professionals and non-professionals when working with individuals, couples or groups. Often used as an introductory exercise or icebreaker, they also work well as a standalone activity or as a module within a larger…
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Journal Article Objective. Although studies have begun to explore the impact of the current wars on child well-being, none have examined how children are doing across social, emotional, and academic domains. In this study, we describe the health and well-being of children from military families from the perspectives of the child and nondeployed parent. We also assessed the experience of deployment for children and how it varies according to deployment length and military service component.Participants and Methods. Data from a computer-assisted telephone interview with military children, aged 11 to 17 years,…
Fact Sheet, Brief
This fact sheet summarizes research showing that children from military families experience above-average levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties and that longer parental deployments are associated with greater difficulties. (Author abstract) Superceded: See http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9568.html Other
The first three years of life are critical in a child's physical, emotional, and intellectual development. Military life presents some unique parenting challenges that civilian families may not face, such as frequent deployments, long duty hours, moves to unfamiliar locations, and separation from extended families and friends. The New Parent Support Program was developed to help military families with young children to adapt to parenthood and to thrive as healthy families no matter where their service may take them. (Author abstract)
This Social Policy Report summarizes what is currently known about our nation’s military children and families and presents ideas and proposals pertinent to the formulation of new programs and the policies that would create and sustain these initiatives. We emphasize the need for future rigorous developmental research about military children and families that could more definitively inform future programs and policies. These policies and programs should build on the resilience of military children and families in order to best maintain and enhance their health and positive development. The…
Two commentaries from the report, Military and Veteran Families and Children: Policies and Programs for Health Maintenance and Positive Development, deepen the discussion about how best to support military and veteran children and families. In the first commentary, Michelle Sherman, who has spent many years working in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system, describes innovative efforts of VHA programs to partner with community organizations to better support children and families. She also calls for VHAs to expand their focus to support veterans and their families. (Author abstract…
Two commentaries from the report, Military and Veteran Families and Children: Policies and Programs for Health Maintenance and Positive Development, deepen the discussion about how best to support military and veteran children and families. In the second commentary, Rami Benbenishty and Ron Astor highlight the importance of considering the normative settings in which military children function (e.g., nonmilitary communities, schools) and building on those normative experiences to foster resiliency in military-connected children. They also urge researchers to include information about the…
Blue Star Families’ Annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey provides a comprehensive understanding of the experiences and challenges encountered by military families. Military families are much like their civilian neighbors; however, the unique demands of military service result in unique issues and challenges. Supporting military families is vital to sustaining the All-Volunteer Force and a strong national defense. Service members and their families will continue to be asked to do more with less. Military families are central to service member recruitment and retention decisions, and to…
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Journal Article Military families with young children face unique psychological and relational challenges during reintegration because of attachment disruption. This can increase psychological stress for service members. We examined three phases of the deployment cycle: predeployment, deployment, and reintegration to reveal risk and resilience factors that may impede or promote attachment relationships. We also explored the impact of predeployment preparation and deployment communication on service members’ parenting stress at reintegration. We conducted (N = 30) semistructured interviews with fathers who…
