Military Deployment Essay

Military deployment may adversely affect not only returning veterans, but their families, as well. As a result, researchers have increasingly focused on identifying risk and protective factors for successful family adaptation to war-zone deployment, re-integration of the returning veteran, and the longer-term psychosocial consequences of deployment experienced by some veterans and families. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among returning veterans may pose particular challenges to military and military veteran families; however, questions remain regarding the impact of the course of veteran PTSD and other potential moderating factors on family adaptation to military deployment. The Family Foundations Study builds upon an established longitudinal cohort of Army soldiers (i.e., the Neurocognition Deployment Health Study) to help address remaining knowledge gaps A growing literature indicates that family members …show more content…
Problems among children with deployed parents can rise to the level of serious mental health concerns, as demonstrated by a 10% increase in psychiatric hospitalizations among children aged 9–17 when a military parent was recently deployed (Millegan et al., 2013). Similarly, children of deployed or recently deployed military personnel report greater substance abuse, as compared with children from nonmilitary families (Acion et al., 2013). As aspects of recent military operations “draw down,” the children of military personnel are increasingly challenged by how to adjust to the re-integration of their parent(s) into non-deployed life and, in many cases, fully into civilian life as service members separate from the military (Chandra et al.,