Are fathering interventions acceptable to Veterans? A needs and preferences survey

Primack, J. M., Thompson, M., Doyle, R., & Battle, C. L. (2020). Are fathering interventions acceptable to veterans? A needs and preferences survey. Military Medicine, 185(3/4), 410–413. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usz422

Reintegration following deployment can be a stressful experience for military family members, especially as returning mothers and fathers renegotiate their parenting roles. This stress may be magnified when deployment reintegration coincides with a Service member’s transition out of activeduty service. Parenting programs for newly transitioned Veterans may help alleviate some of this stress by providing knowledge and skills to manage these stressors. However, little is known about Veterans’ preferences for types and modes of parenting programs. Fifty Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) who had recently returned from a deployment, recently separated from the military, and were fathers completed an anonymous survey. They answered questions about parenting programs, including their perceptions of the need for such programs and their knowledge of, interest in, and preferred delivery method for such parenting programs. Responses indicated that many Veterans reported interest in participating in parenting programs upon reintegration, offering implications for program development and implementation.

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