Dalton Turner

Dr. Bose
English 101
04 August 2015
Effects on Military Service Children
How are military members children affected by wartime military service? Currently the
conflict abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan is the longest war in United States history. Not only are
members of the armed forces on the front lines, but their children are as well. The demands
placed on military children are far greater than civilian children.
Background
Patricia Lester and Lieutenant Colonel Eric Flake (USAF) state in their article How
Wartime Military Service Affects Children and Families, that there are about four million
children connected to the military that reside in the U.S., which is about five percent of the total
eighty million children. This percentage of children serves just as their parent or parents do.
Children of military members often have to sacrifice much more than civilian children. When
speaking with Staff Sgt. Turner (USAF), she mentions the struggles of being a mother and being
in the armed forces. She states that she feels that her four year old daughter sacrifices just as she
does when deployed or placed in other areas abroad. She feels that her daughter deals with far
more than a common child does. In her familys situation, she is married to a Navy veteran who
is responsible for her daughter while she is deployed. With women now allowed to serve on the
front lines as of 2013, now there is a greater impact on children of maternal military service.
Most research examines the impact of a deployed father leaving a wife or family member to raise
children.

Deployments
Currently Staff Sgt. Turner is on the tail end of a six month deployment and she
exclaimed that it has been the hardest six months of her life as well as in her 6 year military
career. She claims that being away from her daughter makes it the hardest, especially during the
early years. While gone she has missed her daughter losing her first tooth amongst many other
events. She feels that her daughter suffers the most during deployments, because though she has
explained to her daughter that she is away working, most four year old dont fully understand
why their parent has to be gone for months at a time. With the two having communications
through video chat, Staff Sgt. Turner finds that the behavior of her daughter has changed since
she has been away and often notices change when her daughter is with those outside of her
husband. Lester and Lt. Flake state that for military children, separation from a parent during
deployment makes the familys already dynamic cycle of frequent moves more complex.
There is a deployment cycle that exhibits all range of emotions and behaviors that
families and children experience. This cycle is made up of five different phases: predeployment, deployment, sustainment (during deployment), redeployment and post-deployment.
The first part of the cycle is where children may begin to withdraw emotionally. Once the
service member deploys these emotions may intensify. Most children can begin to feel
overwhelmed, sad, or possibly anxious. Once the service member returns everyone is excited
but after this reunion comes, then the phase comes where the military member has to find their
role again in parenting. Young children are affected differently from deployments than older
children. Younger children typically have problems with daily routines, regressing behaviorally,
withdrawing emotionally or simply just acting out. This is something that Staff Sgt. Turner
mentioned that her daughter may exhibit some of these behavioral issues upon her return. She

stated to me that this was what she was most afraid of before deploying. With her daughter
being such a young age, Staff Sgt. Turner feels that these early years are some of the most
important in regards to structure, discipline and behavior.
Effects on Military Children
Staff Sgt. Turner feels that the military lifestyle can have positive and negative effects on
a child. The military can provide a child the opportunity to experience the world in a way that
most other children cant. With the frequent moving that comes with the military children often
have to change schools, lose friends, live in foreign countries, and experience family separation.
The negative aspects can give a child the sense of not belonging.
In a recent study on the effects on children of service members, it was concluded that
deployment is consistently associated with children having behavioral issues as well as problems
academically. Being that about forty percent of children of active-duty military families are five
years or younger, these young children are more susceptible to being sensitive to multiple long
separations from the primary caregiver. Studies of separation during deployment find that as the
cumulative stress model would predict, the longer and more often a parent is deployed, the
greater the psychological, health, and behavioral risk for the child.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when a military service member of the United States is deployed, theyre
not the only ones who sacrifice and serve our country, their families do as well. Children are on
the front lines in regards of experiencing developmental effects. With separation and constant
change, military families live a very challenging lifestyle. The struggles that military families
face can be very detrimental if not treated with care and support isnt present. Help from family

members as well as military installations for deployed members can help create an environment
where children can develop properly limiting the negative effects. Educating military families
about deployments and what they can look forward to while being deployed is something that
every military family should encounter and take seriously for the betterment of their childs
growth.

Works Cited
Lester, Patricia, and Eric Flake. "How Wartime Military Service Affects Children and Families."
Future of Children 23.2 (2013): 121-141. Print.
Andres, Manon D., and Ren Moelker. "There and Back Again: How Parental Experiences
Affect Childrens Adjustments in the Course of Military Deployments." Armed Forces &
Society (0095327X) 37.3 (2011): 418-447. Print.