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Rainelle Riggins

Dr. Cassel

English 1201

8 November 2018

Mental Health in Military Children

As a military child I have been lucky to not have mental health issues, but being around a

lot of other military children it is easy to see the difficulties some of them go through. My friend

Arianna struggled a lot to have her parents in the military. Her dad is in the Navy and had to be

on the ship for months out of the year. She was the only child, and it was always just her mom

and her most of the time. She struggled as she got older and was able to access more things.

In middle school when her dad would deploy she always seemed more upset than usual. I

understood being a military child, but my parents did not deploy as much because they were in

the air force. I witness her go through her high and low days all through middle school. Anytime

he left nothing mattered. She would barely talk to me or any of her other friend, she seemed

depressed all the time, and school was not important to her anymore. She could barely make it

through the school year passing

When high school came around thing got even worse. She had access to things she did

not have in middle school. She started smoking weed all time and would post it on snap chat. She

was able to skip class with her other friends. Most people thought she was just a bad child, they

did not understand the struggle she went through. Mentally she could not handle everything that

was being brought upon her. She had to move through life seeing her day come and go, so she

found drugs as a way to feel better.

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When it comes to military children and civilian children there is a big difference between

them. The obvious difference is that they move around a lot, they have benefits that regular

children cannot get, and they have parents that deploy for months at a time. The one major

difference between them is that military children have a higher chance of having mental health

issues. When children start to have back to back deployments they don’ handle them as well as a

child who only experiences one or two deployments say researchers (Collins). Military children

have to deal with different difficulties that can cause them to act out or even feel alone. Even

though some military children may have mental health a lot of them are just fine. All in all, they

have a higher chance of suicide, addiction, and lower academic performance than the average

child.

The U.S. Military Healthcare System diagnosed almost 1.6 million children between the

ages of 2- 18 years old in the last fifteen years. There was an increase in Mental Health

Diagnoses and Visits for children having a connection in the military. Each year there has been

almost a four percent increase in the amount of mental health in military children, going from ten

percent in 2001 to almost sixteen percent in 2015 (1). The more mental health issue means the

more treatments there are. The number of children that went in for mental health treatment

double in fifteen year time period, going from 6 to 12 each year. “The percentage of children on

psychotropic medications increased from 8 percent in 2002 to 12 percent in 2014” (1).

6,579 children who were connected with parents who deploy were diagnosed with mental

health issues in a four year time period, compared to children who did not have parents that

deployment (Mansfield, Kaufman, Engel). Anxiety is the disorder that is seen the most when it

comes to military children. They can separation anxiety because their parents are gone and they

are worried. Anxiety can cause them to have trouble sleeping, and causing physical pain; such as
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headaches or

stomach aches

(Collins 1). If

parents are gone for

long periods of time

it can be traumatic

for the child and can

cause emotional and

behavioral issues.

Even if the parent is

Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1107630

not at war the idea of them going causes psychological distress. Figure 1 shows mental health in

boys depending on number of deployments a parent has. "Research addressing military children

during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) is sparse, yet

points to increased stress and behavioral problems associated with parental deployment"

((Mansfield, Kaufman, Engel).

Military children seem to have more mental issues when they have deployed back to

back. Thirty percent of children have trouble with deployments (Collins 1). Deployment is

where you have to move from place to place. Kids have to leave their friends and school and

move to a new place. It can be difficult at times; I have even struggled from moving to a new

place.

Being thousands of miles away from my extended family and friends I felt forgotten. I

do not feel like that now because of technology, but at first, it was not like that, as a child once I

moved I lost all contact with my friends because I did not have a phone. Every time I moved I
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would get depressed. I dreaded getting and I never felt like myself, each move seemed to get

worse the older got in age until I made it to high school. Before that I was defiant, and never did

what I was told because I felt like I was being punished already. With the help of social media

and being older I do not struggle with moving as much.

Children with parents who deploy have a higher risk of using drugs and alcohol than a

regular non-military child. The child can still be affected even their parents are not deployed

anymore. When they move around a lot can increase substance use even more than just having

their parents deployed (Ramirez, Jorge, Arndt).

According to Glenza having active-duty military parents can cause the kids to have an

increase risk in violence, substance abuse and becoming the victim of bullying, from a study in

the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. During a survey conducted in

California, "45% of military-connected children reported using alcohol in their lifetimes,

compared with 39% of their peers. Military-connected students reported being pushed, kicked,

slapped or hit in school at a rate of 36%, almost nine percentage points higher than what their

peers experienced. They are also more like to carry guns or knives to school – 10% said they

brought a gun to school while less than 5% of their peers did; 15% said they'd brought a knife to

school, but less than 9% of their peers had done the same." This data shows that military children

struggle more with certain things than the average child. Things that can cause this is multiple

moves, being away from parents and friends, and worrying about family members and their

safety.

According to Elizabeth M. Collins from Soldiers Magazine, Reports have shown that

there are higher suicidal thoughts when it comes to kids who have deployed multiple times.
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"Kids often experience more anxiety," said Dr. Michael Faran, a psychiatrist, retired

colonel and chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office, or

CAFBHO, at Army Medical Command, explaining that while there is not a lot of data,

some studies suggest about 30 percent of children will have difficulties as a result of

deployment. "There's an increase in depression and anxiety. There can be a decrease in

academic performance. In some adolescents, there's an increase in the use of drugs and

alcohol. And there has been more gang activity reported in some teens."

Not all military children have mental health issues; they could just be stressed and/ or sad about

deploying again. There are warning signs depending on their age, and ways to prevent them from

feeling stressed and lost after deploying. Younger children may throw tantrums or not want to

play with their toys. When it comes to teenagers they may stop participating in activities that

used to enjoy, or even have more risk-taking behavior. When kids start to act out and get bad

grades are an early warning sign that something is not going right. Having a routine can help the

kids get through deployments like having a set bedtime and still having pizza every Friday if it is

something you did before. Doing this gives them a familiar thing in a different environment, so

things do not as though they have changed. Another way is by getting involved in school

activities that can benefit the child, it allows them to make friends and give them something to do

(Collins 1).

Finding help for military children is hard because not very many schools keep a record of

which children are associated with the military. Only 14 states track if their students are military

children. That's not that many when almost 1 million children have relations to the military

(active duty). When it comes to having parents that are veterans then it adds up to about 4

million.“We have kids whose parents have had 13, 14 deployments, both the mom and the dad,
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and it seems like there’s almost no end in sight,” said Astor. ‘“We have some cases where kids

have been in six, seven, eight, in some cases 20 schools, going from base to base, country to

country.”’ There is not much recent research on military children because it is a new study, and

researchers say a lot of the studies are from past decades. There is controversy around this topic.

Some studies like to show military children are resilient, while others focus on the risk and

difficulties of being a military child (Glenza 1).

Children who have deployed parents outnumber the non deployed parents by 2 to 1

(Mansfield, Kaufman, Engel). Multiple studies she that military children are stressed and worry

about their parents. This is true and it happens to many military kids, even me. While my mother

was in Korea, I stayed with my dad in Hawaii. I worried more about her at that time because I

was able to understand more than I did when I was younger. Watching the new and having social

media, I heard a lot about Kim Jong Un (the leader of North Korea). My mom was right lived

around the gate that separates North Korea from South Korea. Watching TV I hear that Kim

Jong Un was going to send a missile of some sort to hit South Korea. I was worried about my

mother’s safety and if she would make it back all right. I was under a lot of stress from worrying

and dealing with making friends and keeping up with grades.

Studies have shown that the longer a parent is away the more emotional and behavioral

problems a child may have (Barron 1). The more communication the child has with their parent

the better they are able to handle the stress of deployments. Some schools on base have serves to

help military children with stress and deployments.

At JBLM, the Family Assistance for Maintaining Excellence, the Child Guidance Clinic

and the School-Based Behavioral Health Program have been absorbed into the CAFAC.

Madigan Army Medical Center now has a fully-functioning one-stop shop under one
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director. The CAFAC also provides one phone number that puts family members at

JBLM in touch with providers who can deliver the care they need. The SBH offers access

to behavioral health providers trained in child psychology, psychiatry and social work

case management. Teams of these providers are actually embedded in the schools that

military children attend and work in conjunction with other specialists who are working

on behalf of the wellness and behavioral health needs of Army children. Currently, SBH

programs have been established at over 40 schools at seven installations. These programs

are only operating at on-post schools, but planning is underway to take the program to

schools "outside the gate."

There are not very many, but as they continue to work they can get placed in schools around

military bases.

Mental health in military children is not someone thing everyone thinks about. Military

children have a higher risk of having mental health issues, which can result in suicide, addiction,

and lower academic performance. This happens more often to military children than to the

average child. One major issue researchers see in military children is anxiety and stress. This can

be caused by deploying, new environments, and worrying about their parents. With more

research, we can find ways to help them through their transitions.

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Work Cited

Barron, Patty. "Military Children Are Resilient but Still Face Challenges." Military Families,

edited by Sylvia Engdahl, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Current Controversies. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010905223/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid

=774b1ecb. Accessed 18 Oct. 2018. Originally published in AUSA News, Apr. 2012.

Collins, Elizabeth M. “Experts Explain Mental State of Military Children.” Www.army.mil, Soldiers

Magazine, 1 May 2015,

www.army.mil/article/147786/experts_explain_mental_state_of_military_children.

Glenza, Jessica. “Military Children Display Higher Rates of Substance Abuse and Violence – Study.”

The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Aug. 2015, www.theguardian.com/us-

news/2015/aug/17/military-children-substance-abuse-violence-bullying-victims-study.

Lester, Patricia, et al. “Psychological Health of Military Children: Longitudinal Evaluation of a Family-

Centered Prevention Program to Enhance Family Resilience.” Military Medicine, vol. 178, no. 8,

Aug. 2013, pp. 838–845. EBSCOhost, doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00502.

Mansfield, Alyssa J. “Deployment and Mental Health Diagnoses Among Children of US Army

Personnel.” JAMA, American Medical Association, 1 Nov. 2011,

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1107630.

“Mental health diagnoses rise significantly for military children." Mental Health Weekly Digest, 16 May

2016, p. 72. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A452434209/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=8cae117

9. Accessed 18 Oct. 2018.

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