2-176 - Military Stressors and Children’s Well-Being: The Moderating and Mediating Roles of Parents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children in military families are presented with unique challenges related to the demands of the military lifestyle, including frequent parental separations due to deployments and frequent relocations (Booth & Lederer, 2012). Previous research has shown that these military stressors are risk factors for children’s well-being and parent-child relationships (e.g., Bradshaw et al., 2010; Chandra et al., 2010; Huebner & Mancini, 2005). Notwithstanding, less research has focused on the processes in which military stressors influence children’s well-being. Moreover, there is a paucity of research on the protective factors that buffer children against the impact of military stressors. The four papers in this symposium address the risk and protective factors related to children’s well-being in military families.
In the first paper, Hajal et al. examine the associations among deployment, military parents’ symptoms of psychological distress, and preschoolers’ well-being. Next, Bullock et al. investigate the moderating role of adolescent-parent relationships in the link between adolescents’ emotional reactivity to deployment and well-being. Subsequently, Lucier-Greer et al. assess competing models linking the military family functioning, parent-child relationships, and children’s depression. Finally, Perkins uses a qualitative approach to explore military spouses’ perceptions of the risk and protective factors related to children’s well-being during deployments. This identified the need for improved military parent-child communication and parent-absence support programs as well as greater awareness of parent and child programs. The four papers are complimentary in their research question, use different methodologies, and consider the roles of stressors and protective factors in children’s well-being in military families.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Amanda Bullock, Carleton University

Individual Presentations

• Parental Military Combat Exposure and Socio-emotional Adjustment in Early Childhood - Presenting Author: Nastassia Josephine Hajal, UCLA; Cara Kiff, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; Wendy Barrera, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; Hilary Aralis, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; Li-Jung Liang, UCLA; Catherine Mogil, UCLA; Norweeta Milburn, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; Blair Paley, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior; Patricia Lester, UCLA

• The Moderating Role of Adolescent-Parent Relationships between Adolescents’ Reactivity to Deployment and Adjustment - Presenting Author: Amanda Bullock, Carleton University; Robert Coplan, Carleton University; Alla Skomorovsky, Department of National Defence

• Military Marriages, Parenting, and Child Depression: Exploring Family-level Data and Contrasting Models of Influence - Presenting Author: Samantha Howard, Florida State University; Mallory Lucier-Greer, Florida State University; Jay Mancini, Virginia Tech

• Military Parental Absence: Student Impact, Influential Factors, and Support Strategies - Presenting Author: Daniel Perkins, Penn State University