Briggs Ernestine C, Fairbank John A, Tunno Angela M, Lee Robert C, Corry Nida H, Pflieger Jacqueline C, Stander Valerie A, Murphy Robert A
1UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, Duke University School of Medicine, 1121 West Chapel Hill Street, Suite 201, Durham, NC 27701 USA.
2Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC USA.
J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2019 May 21;13(1):75-87. doi: 10.1007/s40653-019-00259-z. eCollection 2020 Mar.
Families experience multiple stressors as a result of military service. The purpose of this study was to examine facets of military life and family factors that may impact child psychosocial and mental health functioning. Using baseline data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, this study examined family demographics and composition (age, number of children), military life stressors (injury, family, and deployment stressors), family communication and satisfaction as assessed by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-IV, parental social functioning assessed via the Short Form Health Survey-36, and child mental health and behavioral functioning (parental reports of clinician-diagnosed mental health conditions such as depression) and an adapted version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Injury- and family-related military stressors were significant indicators of heightened risk for child mental health conditions, whereas greater levels of parental social functioning and family satisfaction were associated with lower risk of child mental health conditions. Differential associations were found in child functioning when military-related variables (e.g., service component), sociodemographic, and family composition factors (number and age of the children in the home) were examined. These findings underscore the importance of examining the "whole child" within the broader ecological and military family context to understand factors associated with children's mental and behavioral health. The results from the present study highlight the complex relationships that may be at play, which, in turn, have considerable implications for the development of policies to support children and families encountering multiple stressors related to a parent's military service.
由于服兵役，家庭会经历多种压力源。本研究的目的是探讨军事生活的各个方面以及可能影响儿童心理社会和心理健康功能的家庭因素。利用千禧队列家庭研究的基线数据，本研究考察了家庭人口统计学和构成（年龄、子女数量）、军事生活压力源（受伤、家庭和部署压力源）、通过家庭适应性和凝聚力评估量表-IV评估的家庭沟通与满意度、通过简短健康调查-36评估的父母社会功能，以及儿童心理健康和行为功能（父母报告的临床诊断心理健康状况，如抑郁症）和优势与困难问卷的改编版。与受伤和家庭相关的军事压力源是儿童心理健康状况风险增加的重要指标，而父母社会功能和家庭满意度较高与儿童心理健康状况风险较低相关。在考察与军事相关的变量（如军种）、社会人口统计学和家庭构成因素（家中子女的数量和年龄）时，发现儿童功能存在差异关联。这些发现强调了在更广泛的生态和军事家庭背景下考察“完整儿童”以了解与儿童心理和行为健康相关因素的重要性。本研究结果突出了可能起作用的复杂关系，这反过来对制定政策以支持面临与父母服兵役相关多种压力源的儿童和家庭具有重要意义。
