Tidwell, Allison

Balancing parental and work responsibilities is difficult enough – but did you know that around 37% of the United States Armed Forces’ 1.3 million active-duty Service members have children? Thankfully, there’s a wealth of research on these families’ experiences. Today, we’ll consider research regarding fathers’ experiences in the military, paying particular attention to how fathers navigate parenting during challenges like deployment and reintegration. We’ll discuss some of the difficulties military fathers face during deployment and reintegration, along with how they affect military fathers and their children. We’ll also provide parenting resources intended to help balance work and family life. Common challenges among military fathers and how they impact the family Service member fathers face many parenting difficulties during their military careers, but two of the biggest challenges are deployment and reintegration. Deployment is a stressful time for military families. The extended separation they face can take an especially heavy toll on fathers. Research shows that when fathers perceive a threat to their safety during deployment, their parenting becomes less sensitive. This, in turn, may cause their children to exhibit social and emotional difficulties (e.g., poor peer interactions, unhealthy emotional expression) as well as behavioral problems (e.g., hyperactivity, defiance). Similarly, deployed fathers who have difficulty managing their emotions may engage in more coercive parenting (e.g., irritability, bossiness, persistent negativity). Coercive parenting, in turn, is linked to poorer overall well-being for children, with outcomes including internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggression, hyperactivity). Reintegration, the period of a Service member’s adjustment to “normal” life after deployment, also poses challenges for returning fathers. Reintegration, like deployment, is often associated with increased stress for the entire family. Returning fathers report less patience, more irritability, and more communication problems with their family during reintegration. Research further finds that military fathers’ mental health concerns (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder) can also contribute to their children’s’ behavioral problems years after reintegration. Additionally, stress during reintegration sometimes leads to less emotionally sensitive parenting (e.g., less supportive, not supervising children as needed) by military fathers, which can have consequences for child adjustment (e.g., behavioral problems) during reintegration as well. How fathers can mitigate the risks of military-related parenting challenges Being a father and Service member does not automatically result in negative consequences for your children: frequent father involvement contributes to better parent and child well-being. Specifically, when fathers spend more time with their children both at home (e.g., recreation, shared activities) and during deployment (e.g., setting time each week for video calls) their well-being is greater. Spending time with their child also gives fathers untold opportunity to model positive parenting practices, such as supporting the child’s decision-making and encouraging positive behavior. Military-related stressors such as long periods of separation put military fathers’ own well-being at risk. Given this reality, it’s important that fathers care for themselves. Practicing mindfulness and self-care are useful ways for fathers to attend to their own emotional needs; the practices also serve as useful models for children. Furthermore, fathers should consider professional help to address their mental health concerns: such help in turn makes them better equipped to care for their children. Beyond mental health, fathers may choose to address the quality of their parental relationships. Evidence suggests that a father’s relationship with his child’s mother affects the child’s mental health (e.g., depression). Military fathers might therefore invest in their romantic relationships with couples counseling or relationship education in order to reduce potential negative consequences for their children. Lastly, fathers can also mitigate the risk of parenting challenges by attending parenting programs. The Department of Defense has invested in evidence-based parenting programs and resources to promote military family readiness and resilience. These programs address a variety of family-related topics, including parent-child communication, bonding with children, and finding a new “normal” upon returning from deployment. To learn more about these programs, check out the resources listed at Military OneSource. Despite facing many challenges in balancing work and family responsibilities, military fathers continue to be resilient and positively impact their children. By using an abundance of resources for military families and improving their parenting skills as a result, fathers can ease the burden of Service-related challenges borne by both the family and themselves.

Family Story

https://militaryreach.auburn.edu/ffFathersInMilitary.jsp

https://aub.ie/militaryreach-hajal2020

Hajal, N. J., Aralis, H. J., Kiff, C. J., Wasserman, M. M., Paley, B., Milburn, N. G., ... & Lester, P. (2020). Parental wartime deployment and socioemotional adjustment in early childhood: The critical role of military parents’ perceived threat during deployment. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33(3), 307-317. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22475

Wartime deployment is often stressful for members of military families, in part, because Service members are in proximity to danger. This exposure to stress may negatively influence emotion socialization (i.e., the process of parents or other adults helping children learn to manage their emotions, such as being sensitive or setting a good example). Data from military families (N = 104) with children ages 3–6 were examined to understand whether Service member fathers’ deployment experiences (e.g., combat experiences, perceived threat) were linked to mother-reported child adjustment (behavioral, social, emotional), beyond what could be attributed to fathers’ mental health (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety). Further, emotion socialization was examined as a linking mechanism connecting fathers’ combat experiences to their children’s adjustment. The results suggest that fathers’ perceptions of threat during deployment, not their combat experiences, were important for parenting patterns as well as child adjustment.

https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22475

Deployment
Children
Mental health
Parents

Navy
Marine Corps
Army
Air Force
Multiple branches

Active Duty
Guard
Reserve
Veteran

Child of a service member or veteran
Active duty service member
Guard/Reserve member
Veteran

Childhood (birth - 12 yrs)
Adulthood (18 yrs & older)

Quantitative Study

Hajal, Nastassia J., Aralis, Hilary J., Kiff, Cara J., Wasserman, Melissa M., Paley, Blair, Milburn, Norweeta G., Mogil, Catherine, Lester, Patricia

Infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children have unique developmental needs that render them vulnerable to challenges associated with parental military service. We used a sample of military-connected families with 3–6-year-old children (N = 104) to examine associations among children's socioemotional development and fathers’ trauma-related deployment experiences, including perceived threat during deployment and exposure to combat and the aftermath of battle. Of these potential stressors, only paternal perceived threat during deployment was significantly associated with measures of mother-reported child adjustment. Fathers’ perceived threat during deployment was associated with child behavior problems even after accounting for demographic variables and current paternal symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety, β = .36, p = .007. The association between fathers’ perceived threat during deployment and child behavior problems was mediated by several family processes related to emotion socialization, including father-reported sensitive parenting, indirect effect (IE) B = 0.106, 95% CI [0.009, 0.236]; parent–child dysfunctional interaction, IE B = 0.119, 95% CI [0.014, 0.252]; and mother-reported family emotional responsiveness, IE B = 0.119, 95% CI [0.011, 0.258]. Implications for future research on the intergenerational transmission of traumatic stress as well as prevention and intervention efforts for military-connected families with young children are discussed.

John Wiley & Sons

Article
REACH Publication

Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, NJH
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, HJA
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California,CJK
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, MMW
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, BP
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, NGM
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, CM
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry , Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, PL