Growing up in a military family:Risks and resilience in young people and military families

Military families, where one or both partners are in the Armed Forces, face challenges not experienced by their civilian counterparts, including recurrent separations and parental absence(s) from home, frequent relocations and ensuing disruptions to social networks, injury and/or death of serving parent, bringing wide-ranging risks for family members, including children.<br/><br/>In the context of on-going European and world-wide armed conflicts, understanding the impact of parental military career on children, the ‘invisible casualties of wars’, has never been more apparent.<br/><br/>This presentation reports on a study of 453 Royal Navy and Royal Marine families with school age children living in the UK. The data comprises parental reports on 645 individual children and 142 child self-reports.<br/><br/>Informed by previous research, the study deigns assessed a series of risk and protective factors including: family size (number of children in the family); where the families lived (on a military base/ outside/ dispersed); serving status of parents (mother/ father serving or dual-service couple); parental deployment status (both parents at home; serving parent ‘weekending’ or on deployment); stressful events experienced by the family within 6 months of the assessment (bereavement, serious illness of partner or child, change of school, change of housing, etc.).<br/><br/>Parent and family functioning were also assessed (via standardized measures) as it may impact on child’s outcomes: parent’s self-reported resilience; parenting stress; family functioning; family conflict.<br/><br/>Child outcomes were assessed via parents’ reports on their child’s school experience and adjustment. Children aged 10 and over also self-reported on their adjustment, self-esteem and resilience and provided qualitative insights and their views on the best and worst aspects of growing up in a military family.<br/><br/>Statistical analyses explored the complex relationships between parent and family risk factors and children’s outcomes; and qualitative analyses illustrate children’s voices. Results highlight specific areas of resilience and risk which require further support. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.<br/>