This is the most recent of many studies which show that the children of military personnel pay emotionally for the unpredictability in their lives.

Children who move every two years, one report said, were more likely to have behavioral problems.

This study, published in the journal Pediatrics (online) on December 7, 2009,  is specifically about children of soldiers sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. The study says that there were no differences in the children based on their parents’ branch of service.

Health Day News

“Children whose parents are deployed appear to have more emotional difficulties, stress, anxiety and problems within the family than their peers, a new study shows. (Emphasis added)

“Researchers interviewed more than 1,500 military family members, including kids aged 11 to 17, nearly all of whom had a parent who was deployed or had been deployed once or more to Iraq or Afghanistan. They also surveyed the parent, usually the mother, who stayed home.”

…”What we found was that kids were reporting taking on more household responsibilities, such as taking care of siblings, and feeling like they were missing school activities,” said study author Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. in Arlington, Va. “At the same time, they may be worrying about the parent at home and overseas and trying to manage their life of being a kid.”

“Though the study found that the number of deployments did not affect a child’s emotional health, the total number of months away did. Many military personnel have been deployed four, five and even six times during the current wars, for lengths ranging from a few months to more than a year. In the study, the average number of months a parent had been deployed in the past three years was 11.” (Emphasis added)

Source: HealthDay News, December 7, 2009

Citation: Pediatrics, published online December 7, 2009 (10.1542/peds.2009-1180)