Description/Abstract
“Objective: Children are at risk for adverse outcomes during parental military deployments. We aim to determine the impact of parental deployment and combat injury on young children’s postdeployment mental health, injuries, and maltreatment. Method: This is a population-based, retrospective cohort study of young children of active duty military parents during fiscal years (FY) 2006-2007, a high deployment period. A total of 487,480 children, 3 to 8 years of age, who received Military Health System care, were included. The relative rates of mental health, injury, and child maltreatment visits of children whose parents deployed and children of combat-injured parents were compared to children unexposed to parental deployment. Results: Of the included children, 58,479 (12%) had a parent deploy and 5,405 (1%) had a parent injured during deployment. Relative to children whose parents did not deploy, children of deployed and combat-injured parents, respectively, had additional visits for mental health diagnoses (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.09 [95% CI = 1.02=1.17], IRR = 1.67 [95% CI = 1.47-1.89]), injuries (IRR = 1.07 [95% CI = 1.04-1.09]. IRR = 1.24 [95% CI = 1.17-1.32]), and child maltreatment (IRR = 1.21 [95% CI = 1.11-1.32]. IRR = 2.30 [95% CI = 2.02-2.61]) postdeployment. Conclusion: Young children of deployed and combat-injured military parents have more postdeployment visits for mental health, injuries, and child maltreatment. Mental health problems, injuries, and maltreatment after a parent’s return from deployment are amplified in children of combat-injured parents. Increased preventive and intervention services are needed for young children as parents return from deployments. Child health and mental health providers are crucial to identification of these at-risk children to ensure effective care provision.”
Document Type
Research Brief
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Series
Research Briefs
Keywords
child mental health, child maltreatment, parental injury, military deployment
Date
11-13-2015
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Hisle-Gorman, Elizabeth; Harrington, Donna; Nylund, Cade M.; Tercyak, Kenneth P.; Anthony, Bruno J.; and Gorman, Gregory H., "Impact of Parents’ Wartime Military Deployment and Injury on
Young Children’s Safety and Mental Health" (2015). Institute for Veterans and Military Families. 1.
https://surface.syr.edu/ivmf/1