Lester Patricia, Aralis Hilary, Hajal Nastassia, Bursch Brenda, Milburn Norweeta, Paley Blair, Cortez Maegan Sinclair, Barrera Wendy, Kiff Cara, Beardslee William, Mogil Catherine
UCLA Semel Institute.
Boston Children's Hospital.
Res Sq. 2024 Feb 27:rs.3.rs-3983235. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3983235/v1.
Informed by models of resilience in military families, we explored factors theorized to be associated with social-emotional resilience and risk among young military-connected children. Our secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from 199 military-connected families (n = 346 parents) with at least one preschool-age child in the home (n = 199) led to the empirical identification of two distinct clusters: families with children demonstrating healthy social-emotional functioning and those showing indicators of poor social-emotional functioning. We then identified factors associated with membership in each cluster to determine which deployment and parental wellbeing variables were salient for young child adjustment. Parent psychological health symptoms, parenting, child behavior, and parent-child relationships were measured by parent report and observed interaction. Children with healthier social-emotional functioning were found to be residing with families experiencing less stress and distress. The importance of maternal trauma history is highlighted in our study, as elevated maternal symptoms across all three posttraumatic stress disorder symptom domains were associated with child social-emotional risk. Basic family demographic characteristics did not contribute significantly to the cluster distinctions, nor did military service factors such as active duty, reserve or veteran status, military rank or parent deployment history. These findings are important as the results deemphasize the importance of military service characteristics and highlight the importance of parent wellbeing when considering social-emotional risk and resilience of young children within military families.
基于军属复原力模型，我们探究了理论上与有军事关联的幼儿的社会情感复原力及风险相关的因素。我们对来自199个有军事关联家庭（n = 346名家长）的横断面数据进行了二次分析，这些家庭中至少有一名学龄前儿童（n = 199），通过实证确定了两个不同的类别：孩子表现出健康社会情感功能的家庭和显示出社会情感功能不佳指标的家庭。然后，我们确定了与每个类别归属相关的因素，以确定哪些部署和父母幸福感变量对幼儿适应能力至关重要。通过家长报告和观察到的互动来衡量家长的心理健康症状、育儿方式、孩子行为以及亲子关系。结果发现，社会情感功能更健康的孩子所在的家庭压力和困扰更少。我们的研究强调了母亲创伤史的重要性，因为在创伤后应激障碍的所有三个症状领域中，母亲症状的加剧都与孩子的社会情感风险相关。基本的家庭人口特征对类别区分没有显著贡献，军事服役因素如现役、预备役或退伍军人身份、军衔或父母部署历史也没有显著影响。这些发现很重要，因为结果淡化了军事服役特征的重要性，并突出了在考虑军属家庭中幼儿的社会情感风险和复原力时父母幸福感的重要性。
