Military Kids at High Risk of Psychological Problems

The children of military personnel deployed for long periods overseas are 2.5 times more likely to develop psychological problems than other kids their age, according to researchers.

MSNBC reported Aug. 13 that researchers led by Maj. Eric M. Flake of the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., found that deployment was linked to high levels of stress among the spouses who remained at home, which in turn was related to psychological problems among their children. Flake noted that military children are now seeking mental-health care at twice the rate they were before the Iraq war began.

Researchers who surveyed military families concluded that 32 percent of children were at high risk of psychosocial problems, while 42 percent of the parents who remained home were considered at risk.

Under current military policies and in the face of personnel shortages, soldiers, sailors and airmen are subject to repeated deployments to combat zones, and military families can expect to move every three years, on average.

Besides the stress of separation, military children also may mimic the behaviors of parents who return from war suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, experts said.

“You're kind of in the military, too,” said Thane Hounchell, 17, whose father was recently transferred from Alabama to Shreveport, La. “You've got to make sacrifices for your country.”

“Military children give up a lot, and the fathers and moms are gone a lot,” said Thane's mother, Jana.

The study was published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.