Poster #156 - Predictors of father involvement in military veteran families

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Roughly a quarter of military veterans have at least one child (under 18 years of age) living with them (Creech, Hadley, & Borsari. 2014). Nearly 2 million children in the United States have at least one parent serving in the military, including 1.2 million with active-duty parents (Chandra et al., 2010; Siegel & Davis, 2013), who will ultimately transition to veteran status. While serving, military families encounter complex issues related to deployments, frequent moves, and service member injury and trauma, in addition to typical family stressors like childcare, parenting concerns, and financial issues Chandra et al., 2010). After transitioning, veterans and their families must adjust to civilian life, find employment, navigate family reintegration, and face the long-term impacts of military service. However, there is little research on veteran families and the children of veterans. The existing research focuses almost exclusively on PTSD and the effects of posttraumatic stress on parenting, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma (Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008; Sherman et al., 2016). Parents with PTSD and other mental illness report poorer parent-child relationships, more parenting and child behavior problems, and more family violence (Sherman et al., 2016). In one study of adolescent children of Vietnam combat veterans, Dansby and Marinelli (1999) found that children of combat veterans had poorer attitudes toward school, their fathers, and higher levels of depression and anxiety than children whose fathers were not in Vietnam. While the existing research on veteran parents primarily centers on PTSD and family dysfunction, some studies have looked at protective or positive factors in veteran mental and physical health. For example, religiosity is associated with lower severity of PTSD and symptoms of depression (Tan et al., 2012).
The aims of the current study were to assess the role of veteran father demographic variables, mental health and religiosity on father involvement. The sample for our analysis was collected as part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The subsample for our analysis includes fathers who served in the military and participated in the Year 9 Questionnaire (n = 217). A regression analysis was conducted to predict veteran father involvement with their children (ages 8 to 9 years old). Fathers were asked to report on a number of items relating to involvement in their child’s life. An example item is “since the start of the school year, have you volunteered at your child’s school or served on a school committee?”
A regression analysis examined the relations between veteran father variables and veteran father involvement in their child’s life. Predictor variables were age, income, education, depression, marital status, and the frequency of attending religious services. As seen in Table 1, father’s frequency of attending religious services and father’s marital status uniquely predicted veteran father involvement. Since there is a lack of research on veteran parenting and children of veterans, these results are useful in advancing our understanding of veteran families.

Authors

• Rachel Linsner Uveges, Syracuse University
  Presenting Author

• Matthew Mulvaney, Syracuse University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Noelle Rowe, Syracuse University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rosalinda Maury, Institute for Veterans and Military Families, Syracuse University
  Non-Presenting Author